Halo Universe: 50 Years Later
by Ari141
Summary: With the Spartan Project reinstated, how will the candidates cope with the stresses of the experimentation and training? 50 Years after Halo 3.
1. Reinstatement

**I do not own Halo or any characters thereof. **

_Operating System Online._

_Powering Up._

_Running System Diagnostics._

"Greetings. I am AI number 307, otherwise known as Overseer. Welcome to ONI site 351."

"Just cut to the chase," said a harsh voice.

"I am just following protocol. Please place your hand on the scanner."

"I said just cut to the chase. I am the new head of the Spartan Project. Need I say more to convince you to just get on with it?"

"No, no sir. I apologize for the inconvenience."

"Boot up the holo-projectors, as well as all computer systems in this complex. I want to be able to communicate with all personnel in the area."

"Yes sir. The holo-projectors and computer systems are online."

"Good. Now I need all the files on the possible candidates for the program transferred into my HUD."

"OK. Done sir. May I ask what you need it for?"

The new head of the Spartan Project held up his hand. "Just one second," he said. "Why are all the candidates children?"

"That is the required age group for the project to succeed. I thought you would know that."

"Inform all research personnel that I expect them to have the age group expanded to include teenagers up to age 18. I want as broad a group of possible candidates as possible."

"Of course. Hold on just a second while I formulate the message. OK. I have sent the message to all research personnel."

"Thank you. As to your question about why I need it, and your unspoken question why do I want teenagers, I need older Spartans that can be trained quicker than the conventional training for Spartans. There have been increasing reports of alien activity near planet Solace-311. We need Spartans there, and all of our current Spartans are either retired or on assignment."

"Sounds like a good reason to me. You have a message from the head of research."

"Transfer it to my HUD."

An image popped up in his HUD. "Sir. The Project is already underway. We expect to be done in the next couple of weeks," said a balding Asian looking man of about 40.

"Good Chang. It pleases me to hear you say that so soon. I need it done as soon as possible."

"Yes sir. We understand. We have the DNA pattern for you to identify possible candidates for the Program."

"Thank you. Overseer, start identifying possible candidates."

"Yes sir," said the AI, working in the background.

The Head transferred the AI's data chip to his neural implants.

"And Chang,"

"Yes sir?"

"I expect this to be done in complete and total secrecy. If someone found out about the revival of the Spartan project, there would be chaos. Utter secrecy is the key."

"OK sir. No one will speak of this. I will tell the rest of the staff myself."

"Good. This looks like it is starting very well. I hope all goes according to plan."

**This is my first FanFic. I hope you all like it. Please Review. **


	2. Abduction

**Writing Rampage! For a first FanFic I hope to be going pretty fast. Remember to please write reviews.**

"Sir, All candidates for the New Spartan Project have been identified. Top six candidates are as follows:

Name: Jameson, Kimberly

Age: 16

Hometown: New Mombasa

Name: Brody, Thorn

Age: 17

Hometown: Metro City

Name: Rickers, Jake

Age: 17

Hometown: Metro City

Name: Wright, Kat

Age: 16

Hometown: Metro City

Name: MacIntosh, Jacob

Age: 15

Hometown: New Mombasa

Name: Hoffers, Landen

Age: 15

Hometown: Atlanta

All of these candidates are located on planet Earth. With your permission, we will start retrieving them immediately."

"Permission granted. It's a good thing that Chang got this up so fast. A few days instead of a few weeks. It was very impressive."

"Most impressive, sir. Might I add that the experiments show that the new candidates have a 50% increase in probability of making it through the experimentation and training."

The Head grunted. "A vast improvement. I know the training is grueling, and the experimentation is not the most pleasant experience in the world."

**On Earth:**

"Pelican drop-ship is on approach," said Col. Shaun Robertson. " We will land in Metro City in a few minutes."

The few marines grunted approval. "Finally. Took way to long for us to get here," grumbled Pvt. Luke Kowsanan. "This isn't very exciting for a first mission. What are we even here to do?"

"Kidnap some kids, supposedly," responded Shaun.

"Some KIDS!" exploded Luke. "Why are we kidnapping KIDS?"

"High profile kids. The boss wants 'em. That's all I know. 'It's not ours to question why, it is only ours to do or die,'" responded Shaun, who was piloting the pelican. "By the way, that was a famous quote. Didn't want you to think I was crazy."

"Didn't matter, but I already thought you were crazy. Anyone who doesn't question any orders is crazy. What would the boss want with some lousy kids?"

"All that information is classified. I was just told to pilot the pelican. When we get to the LZ, I'll drop the warthog and two of you will go pick up the van. When the van gets back, the rest of you will load up and go get the kids. Any questions, other than why we have to do this?" he asked, with a pointed glance in Luke's direction.

"OK, OK. I get it. Don't ask questions; just do what you're told. Man, y'all are straight-laced here."

"That's because this is the military, kid. By the way, touchdown in Metro City is in two minutes."

The two marines charged with retrieving the van suited up and grabbed their assault rifles. The pelican landed and the two men jumped out. Luke stood by watching with boredom.

"So what do we do in the meantime?" he asked Shaun.

"Number one, you are to address me as sir since I am your commanding officer for this mission. Number two, you are to sit there without complaining until the others come back with the van. If you have a problem with that, keep it to yourself. Understand?"

"Sir, yes sir!" he answered sarcastically.

A few minutes later, the black prison van drove up. The rest of the marines put on their prison jumpsuits and grabbed rakes and leaf blowers. The two other marines and Col. Robertson put on guard jumpsuits and picked up Magnums and stun guns. Then they were on their way.

"So where are we goin' now?" asked Kowsanan.

"We are inbound to MC High. We will pick up Brody, Rickers, and Wright. Your sunglasses have screens in front of your left eye. They will identify the targets when you look at them. When you see them, rev your leaf blower three times as quickly as possible. Two others of the team will move to your position and surround the target. You will then discretely grab the target and move them to the van. Use as little violence as possible. We want this to go off smoothly. We do not want the local authorities to know until it is too late to do anything about it. Do you all understand?"

A resounding "SIR, YES SIR!" rang through the van.

About an hour later the van pulled up outside the school.

"OK. In about half an hour the students will be released from school. I want everyone in position with headsets online. Also, tell us exactly where you are when you see the targets. We will surround the target and grab them. Alright. MOVE OUT!" Shaun ordered.

Luke was lazily blowing leaves when he saw the first target. "Target Brody in sight," he muttered. He got near the target and revved his leaf blower three times. In minutes the target was surrounded. The three marines rushed in and covered the boy with a leaf bag. They threw him into the back of the van and went back to work. Ten minutes later the other two targets came out. They were hugging. Obviously the two knew each other. Another marine notified the rest of his position and the other two targets were nabbed. Within minutes the marines were off the campus and on their way back to the Pelican.

The three targets were taken out of the leaf bags and handcuffed to rails in the van for the ride back to the Pelican. All of their personal belongings were taken and they were blindfolded. They arrived at the Pelican and were loaded into the back. The van was loaded on as well and the group lifted off. The other three abductions also went without a hitch. With the six abductees sitting in the Pelican, the marines landed in the bay of a top secret vessel. The vessel then left the system and landed somewhere in the outer Milky-Way.

As the six abductees were unloaded onto the station, two of the targets leaned together and started whispering.

"What's going on?" asked the boy.

"I don't know. But I'm scared," answered the girl.

"Shut up," came the command from the biggest of the marines. "I am Col. Robertson. You have been brought here for reasons unknown to me or my team. However, this will be your new home for an indefinite amount of time. You will be showed to your bunk room by Pvt. Kowsanan. You will answer any questions directly and with a yes sir, no sir, yes ma'am, or no ma'am. You will do as you are told without questions or complaints. Do you understand?"

The six looked back at him with blank stares.

"I said DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" he roared.

The six teens jumped and responded with a weak "Sir Yes Sir."

Then they were shown to their bunk room and locked in.

"Well that was nice," said one girl.

"No kidding," said her boyfriend.

"Well we might as well get to know each other. I'm Landen Hoffers," said the youngest of the group.

"I'm Kat Wright," the first girl responded.

"My name's Jake Rickers," said her boyfriend.

"Well this is kind of awkward. I'm Kimberly Jameson," responded the other girl.

"I'm Thorn Brody," said a tough looking boy.

Jake and Kat nodded towards him, since they already knew him.

"I'm Jacob MacIntosh, and I'm really freaking hungry," said the last boy.

"Well this should be interesting. I'm going to sleep for now. See you all in the morning, if this isn't a dream," said Jake.

With that, the six new friends lay down and went to sleep.

**What do y'all think? Pretty good for one afternoon, huh? I'll be writing more when time permits. Please write some reviews. Hasta luego!**


	3. The First Day

**A third chapter finally rolls around. I'm churning this stuff out as fast as I can write it. Last we saw, the group is on board a top secret space station. Please remember to write reviews.**

Loud knocking filled the tiny bunk room. Kat was the first to rise. She went to the door.

"This is Pvt. Kowsanan reporting to tell you that you and your friends are wanted in the briefing room in thirty minutes. Please shower and change into your new uniforms and report in at o-eight hundred hours. Do not be late."

Kat then woke everyone up. "I see that this is not a dream," said Jake. "Either that or my dream is still going on."

"This is definitely not a dream. The bed was too uncomfortable for this to be a dream," Kimberly said sleepily.

"No kidding," said Thorn. "It felt like I had pebbles in my bed."

"That's because you were laying on your uniform. I'm just glad that we're all still alive," replied Landen. "Does anyone know exactly where we are?"

"On some space station way too far away from Earth," Jacob answered. "I wonder when they're finally going to feed us."

"I wonder what they are going to feed us," Kimberly said. "It had better be better than the school's food."

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about any school assignments," Kat responded optimistically.

A little while later they were all showered and dressed. Their uniforms consisted of a desert camouflage shirt and pants and combat boots.

"Could they make the clothes any more uncomfortable?" Jake asked grumpily. "I mean, come one. Why do we have to wear military crap anyway? We aren't in the military. Why can't we just wear our clothes from home?"

"Because you are going to see the head of research. You must look professional to be presented to such a high ranking person," came the answer from the man at the door. "I am here to escort you to the briefing room. Please follow me."

The group had no choice but to follow him. They walked down several long corridors of white steel with computer screen recessed into the walls. Kat tried to memorize all the turns they made. Left, left, right, another left, right again, past the food court, left, right, through the gym, right, left. Then they went through two huge sets of double doors and into a spherical room about 5 stories high. All around the room there were tables covered with scientific equipment. There were bio-matrix scanners and operating tables. Everything a scientist could possibly need or want for his or her research was in that room. The six teens stared in gaping astonishment.

"Quite nice, isn't it?" asked a voice from above.

The six looked up, startled.

"This has been my home for the last 60 years. I'm the head of research here. I am Chang Yo," said the man. "I have acquired anything I might need for my research. If you six would please go lay down in those bio-matrix scanners, I will be right with you."

The man behind the six shoved them forward with the butt of his battle rifle. "You heard the man. Get moving."

A few minutes later the big marine left. The six teens looked blankly up at the top of their respective scanners.

"I'm starting the scanners now," came Chang's voice from the outside.

A few minutes later the scan was complete and the six teens were out beside the man. "Your scans all came back positive. You are definitely the targets we were looking for. Your new rooms are just beyond that wall," he said, pointing to the far side of the lab. "Please move your personal effects there now.

The group did as they were told. A few minutes later another marine came in. "I am here to escort you to the food court," he told them. They walked back down the long corridors and into the food court. "We have every kind of food you might want," he informed the teens. "Eat up."

"Finally," said Jacob.

"We can eat. YAY!" Kat said.

They piled their plates high with food and dug in. They ate everything from Chinese to Italian food. Two hours later they were escorted back to their new room.

"Ugh. I am so stuffed," said Jake, groaning as he took off his shirt and got into bed. "I haven't eaten that well in, well, in forever."

"I know. I hope they keep feeding us like this," came Jacob's happy reply.

"Well, we ought to go back to bed. No telling when they will get us up," Kimberly told them. "I'm going to bed."

"Probably not such a bad idea."

"Yeah, well, I'll see you all in the morning, or whenever they happen to wake us up. It feels like lunch time, but there's no telling without any watches or phones. Good night everybody."

"Good night," came the chorus of replies.

"Yes, good night," said the voice of the Head, watching them through the view screen on his HUD.


	4. Augmentation

**PEOPLE! Please write reviews. I need your opinions on how I'm doing. Come on people, write some reviews! **

"Experimentation is to start right away," the Head told Chang. "I want these six teens' transformations to be complete ASAP. They are the key to saving Solace-311 from this new threat. We need them there now, but they are not ready. Do you understand me?"

"Yes sir. They are all in the chamber. The knockout gas will be released in…" he looked at his watch. "… 5 minutes and 34, 33 seconds. We will then begin the process once the gas has been given time to take effect and dissipate."

"Good. Make sure nothing happens to any of them. I don't want results like those of the original experiments. That would not be good."

The two looked at the screen that was showing the live feed from the cameras hidden in the group's room. All six of them appeared to be asleep in their beds. The countdown timer was ticking away ominously.

1:01

1:00

0:59

The two of them looked at each other. "Make sure they do not suffer any pain, Chang. If they do, you will too."

"Yes sir, of course sir. They will not feel anything until after the procedures are complete," he responded timidly. Chang was a big man, but the Head dwarfed his strength by comparison.

"Good. I know firsthand what the pain can be like," he said, rubbing his right shoulder.

0:30

0:29

0:28

The timer kept ticking down.

Chang muttered to himself under his breath. "This had better work."

0:15

0:14

0:13

Still the countdown continued.

Chang entered some final commands into the computer. "Well, there's no going back now. Let's do this."

0:02

0:01

0:00

Chang hit the button.

**Back in the teens' room:**

The knockout gas came from several different places. The bedposts, the light fixtures, and the door frame all had the billowing white gas spraying out in massive clouds. Kimberly sat up in alarm.

"Guys?" she asked, her voice quavering. "What's going on? Guys, wake up. WAKE UP! Something's being blown into the room."

Jake sat up groggily. "Wha?"

"They're blowing something into the room!"

"Whoa. Hey, do you feel sleepy?" he asked. Then he dropped back into his bunk, comatose.

"Jake? Jake! Wake up!" she shook him, trying to get him to come back.

A strange feeling came over her.

"Hey, I do feel sleepy," she remarked. Then she slumped over onto her bunk, eyes glazed, drool glistening on the corner of her lips.

**In the control room:**

"All six teens are knocked out. The gas will be completely dissipated in 4 minutes," Overseer informed the Head and Dr. Chang.

"Suit up and bring the subjects into the lab," Chang instructed his team. "Strap them onto the gurneys. We need them ready for the procedure ASAP. You have 3 minutes 30 seconds until the gas dissipates. When it does, bring them out and hook them up to the IV fluids and put the gas masks on their faces. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," responded the team leader. "My men are suited up and ready to go. We are on our way to retrieve the subjects and transfer them to the lab.

"Good. Inform me when you have done so."

Chang turned off his com-link.

Meanwhile, the eight lab techs opened the gas chamber doors and picked up the first subject, a light skinned, blonde girl. Next they picked up a tough looking, dark haired boy with scars on his arms from excursions into the woods. Third, they picked up the other girl, who had black hair with blonde highlights. The fourth subject was then strapped to a gurney. He had dirty blonde hair. He was also exceptionally lean and muscular. The fifth subject, a younger boy, was skinny and pale. He was also wearing glasses. The last subject, who looked to be about as old as the fifth, was darkly tanned and muscular. His mouth, even in his state of unconsciousness, was set into a grim line.

The six gurneys were wheeled into the lab and placed in the center, then wired into the devices specified. Dr. Chang strolled into the room wearing an operating smock and a dust mask. He walked over to the first subject. "This experiment is strictly confidential. Do not even tell your families about this." He then began to inject each of the subjects systematically with the drugs required for the experiment. "This will be interesting to see how this turns out." A couple of the subjects twitched when certain drugs were injected into their systems. Others sharply sucked in their breath. The whole procedure took several hours. The gas from the masks kept the six subjects from waking. All were still in their comatose state when the procedures were over.

"Put them all back into their bunks. However, make sure that all of them are strapped down. Hook up the feeding tubes. They should be out for a couple of weeks while the drugs take full effect. I want the gas masks kept on them at all times. As each week progresses, I will lower the dosage of knockout gas being put into their air stream." Dr. Chang instructed.

The first week was obviously painful and grueling. Even in their unconscious states, the six subjects squirmed and writhed. There were even times where they moaned aloud. All of their reactions were varied. Time passed, and each of them changed mentally as well as physically. Each became several inches taller. With the height came strength. They became much more taut and lithe. Overall, they grew by about 50% in the first week. Their bones were able to withstand the pressure of the growing muscles because of the calcium and vitamin D tablets that had been slipped into their first meal at the station.

During the second week the transformation started slowing down. Dr. Chang injected them with smaller portions of the drugs. However, the transformation only leveled out.

"I don't know what's going on," he told the Head at the end of the week. "It slowed down and is now stable, but I gave them more injections and nothing happened."

"That sounds about right from what I have heard from Dr. Halsey. She told me it starts slowing down after the first week and stops after about a month."

"OK. As long as you say so; I just didn't want to have something go wrong."

"Wise choice, Chang. Remember what I told you at the beginning."

"Yes sir. I remember very well," Chang said, rubbing his throat.

The transformations slowed to a stop at about the middle of the third week. The six subjects started stirring, even though the knockout gas had not been taken off. The tests and experimentation were more or less complete.

On the morning of the first week, the first subject woke up. Thorn-X08 was the first of the new Spartans. Next came Kat-D53. The third subject to emerge from their drug-induced slumber was Landen-R36. The fourth to come back was Jacob-H92. The fifth was Jake-A28. Lastly came Kimberly-S35. All six were perfectly functional and healthy.

"Oh, my head. It feels like I have a 12 ton tank sitting on it," Jake moaned after waking up.

When all six were awake, and it was determined that they would not be violent towards the scientists, they were released from their bonds. Dr. Chang performed some tests on their brains and found that they had grown to the point that each easily had an IQ to match his own. Next on his list were the reflex and agility tests. Dr. Chang had the six new Spartans run through a two mile long obstacle course. The course was filled with holes and flying weapons. Plasma pistol bolts flew this way and that. They were only charged enough to sting when a subject was hit. Each new Spartan made it through in just under two minutes.

"Well, you all passed the tests. You are officially part on the Spartan Project," Chang told the group the next morning. "Congratulations."

All the group could do was stare back at him in stunned silence. Kat was the first to speak. "You mean to tell us that we were abducted as part of the Spartan Project. I thought it went defunct after the end of the Human-Covenant War."

Chang replied, "It was. However, it was reinstated two months ago because of increasing hostile alien activity on and around Solace-311."

"Isn't that an archeological site?" Landen asked.

"It is. The UNSC was investigating some Forerunner artifacts that had been discovered there."

Kimberly had another question. "Wasn't Dr. Halsey, the person who started the first successful Spartan Project, killed a few years ago?"

"Yes, she was. But a new candidate came along. A candidate that showed high qualifications for the job. However, I am not at liberty to tell you who the Head is. If I were to tell you, he would probably have me killed, or kill me himself, which would be even worse. Now, you all need to go eat and then go to bed. You six have a very busy day tomorrow. You need to be in your bunks in three hours."

At that time a marine the group recognized walked in.

"Ah, good. Pvt. Kowsanan will escort you to your new accommodations. I think you will find them much more comfortable than the rooms you had previously."

With that remark, he left the room. Pvt. Kowsanan glared up at the six new Spartans. "So this is what they wanted y'all for. They were reinstating the Spartan project." The six Spartans looked at him and looked at one another. When they had been kidnapped, the Private had been several inches taller than all of them. Now each was at least a foot taller than him.

"Uh, how long has it been since you abducted us?" Thorn asked him.

"A month and three days since the actual operation," he responded.

"We've been unconscious for a whole MONTH? Our parents must be worried sick," Kimberly exclaimed.

"They think you are dead. That's what the police told them anyway," Pvt. Kowsanan told them. "Well, here's your room. Ring if you need something. Some fool will be in here to help you."

He left, and then the six looked around at the new room. It had a kitchen that was fully stocked with food.

"JACKPOT!" Jacob yelled. "We have FOOD!"

While Jacob dug in, the rest of the team looked around and found their beds.

"These are more like it," Thorn said as he flopped onto the bed.

They all went into the kitchen and found that Jacob had prepared an entire meal for them. There were mounds of food heaped up on steaming plates, with every topping they might want already on the table. "I just hit a button that said 'Dinner,' and all this food appeared," he told them. None of them had felt hungry before, but as the savory smells of country fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and buttered rolls wafted into their noses, they found that they were ravenously hungry. Each ate three times what they would have been able to eat before the transformation. When they were done, Jacob hit a button that said 'CLEAN,' and all the dishes disappeared back into the recesses of the table. It was only then that they realized that the table was really a lift that could send plates and food up into their room.

"Sweetness!" Jake yelled.

After dinner, they found that they were exhausted. Each crawled into their respective beds and curled up. Before they went to sleep, they all grabbed each others' hands and held them for a few minutes. Then they slept.

And the whole time, the Head watched on taking notes on their behavior and muttering to himself.

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	5. Training

The loud blare of a klaxon alarm woke the six teens up.

"Wha?" Jake asked sleepily. "Wha's that?"

"Ugh. That is way too loud. Anyone have any idea what's going on?" Kat asked.

"Alarm clock," Landen muttered. "We have to be at the training module in one hour."

"Great. Wait a minute, you said alarm clock. Where is it? What time is it?" Kimberly asked.

"0500 hours. The clock is imbedded in the wall." Landen responded.

The six got up and took turn taking showers. When they were all ready, Jacob hit the breakfast button and a huge pot of grits came up out of the table. They ate their fill, and then walked to the door. When they opened it, a short, stocky marine was standing outside the door with his hand poised to knock on the door.

The marine spoke in a quick, staccato fashion. "Oh. Good. You are ready. Please follow me."

On the way to the training module, the marine kept looking back over his shoulder.

"Kreft has been looking forward to seeing you this last month. He's heard many good things about your first trial," he told the team.

"Who's Kreft?" asked Thorn.

"Oh, I thought you knew. He is the Head of Training here."

"What kind of name is Kreft?" Jacob asked.

"He's Sangheili. One of the few of them still working on this station," he answered. "He's quite the skilled combatant. He will be training you to fight and pilot vehicles."

"Sounds good. Hey, if we're Spartans, why don't we have MJOLNIR suits?" Kimberly asked.

"You haven't graduated from the training. Only then will you be fully fledged Spartans."

"Oh, well crap. How long does it take to graduate?" asked Jake.

"That's one thing I don't know. I don't have high enough clearance to see Spartan Intel. The only reason I know what I know is because I have heard information from higher ups."

"OK then," responded Thorn. "If you say so."

Just then the group arrived at the training module. Through the blast doors there was a massive room lined with equipment and gear. There were several doors leading out of the room into various training rooms. A tall, sinewy alien met the door.

"Ah, finally, you are here. I was beginning to wonder whether or not you were going to visit me. By the way, I'm Kreft." His voice had a deep powerful ring that was usual for the Sangheili. "I'm glad they sent you to me before you went to the computer tech room."

"Why? What's wrong with the computer tech room?" asked Kat.

"Nothing. But they say stuff that would probably confuse you if you haven't been in here first. Right this way, please."

"You sure do have a lot of stuff in here," commented Landen.

"Yes, this is all gear you might possibly use in combat. You will eventually learn to use it. Now, through this doorway is the training room. You will go into the airlock and change into your training suit. It is a less advanced version of the MJOLNIR armor. You probably won't feel anything, but it does register hits from various weapons and other environmental effects. You will then proceed through the training course one by one. Your suit will lock up if you take too many hits. In other words, you are "dead." If this happens, you will come back to the start and try again. The fastest time through this course is thirty minutes. Good luck."

Thorn was sent through first. The first zone was relatively easy going. Several plasma bolts shot out, but he dodged them easily. Next he to navigate his way down a mountainous hillside. Two plasma bolts fired, and again he dodged. Then came the surprise. Four plasma rifles started firing at him, as well as six or seven needlers. Several bolts hit him, and a few needles stuck to his suit. The meter on his HUD was dipping dangerously low. He sprinted towards the door, just barely squeaking through without the suit locking up. He waited for his shield to recharge in the room. Looking around, he saw a weapons rack with several fragmentation grenades and a couple of magnums. He picked them up and continued on his way. As he left the room, a voice crackled in his ear. "Smart thinking to pick up the weapons. Now let's see how well you can use them," Kreft told him. Thorn entered the next area with apprehension. He could already tell it was going to be much harder. H walked behind a rock and found little robotic grunt standing there. He promptly wacked it on the back of the head. Next he saw a Brute walking around a few yards down the hill. He moved up behind it and tried to kill it with a blow to the neck, but it was too strong. It whipped around and slammed him into the far wall. He threw two grenades at it, and the second one managed to destroy the Brute. He saw that some grenades had dropped to the ground and picked them up. He came around another corner and saw seven or eight grunts and three Brutes. He stuck a grenade to the back of the biggest Brute. Then he killed the second Brute with a blow to the back of the head. The third he downed with a well placed shot to a plasma coil. The grunts started to scatter, and he stuck one of them on the top of the head with a spike grenade. He went over the dead bots and picked up some more grenades. Then he ran as fast as he could for the door. He made it through quickly, and found himself in another weapons chamber. He picked up a battle rifle, some more grenades, and traded his magnum for a battle rifle. He left the chamber with apprehension. Immediately he saw that the next chamber would be harder. He saw several Brutes, and an entire battalion of Drones. He stuck three of the Brutes with grenades, then proceeded to mow down the drones. However, the drones had too much firepower for him. His suit locked up and the bots powered back down. A conveyor belt appeared in the floor and pulled him back up to the weapon room. A few minutes later, his suit came back online. He proceeded with more caution this time. He killed several Drones with a plasma grenade, and assassinated four Brutes. Then he ran again, trying desperately to avoid getting shot. He made it to the door and back into the starting room, where Kreft and his friends were waiting.

"48 minutes, 35 seconds," Kreft told him. "Not bad for a first time.

The rest of the group's experiences were similar, with the exception of Jacob. Having studied the Covenant, he knew exactly what to do each time. He made it through in 33 minutes and 26 seconds. His five team mates stared at him in wonder.

"This was a good training day," Kreft said to the group. "Go eat lunch and we will have a team training session this afternoon. Vehicles will be introduced, so it should be interesting."

All six teens went back to their bunk room. They hit the "Lunch" button and watched as the hamburgers and fries rose up from the table.

"I still can't get used to this," Kat remarked. "Food whenever we want. I can't believe we eat this much though."

"Probably has something to do with the Spartan augmentation." Landen commented.

When they had finished their lunch, they walked back to the training room. Kreft was waiting for them.

"All right then. This afternoon we will be having a three team battle between the six of you. Each of you will be paired with one other and put on a mongoose. You will then drive to another team's base and either steal the intel or plant a bomb. You must destroy one base and steal one base's intel. The first to do this wins. Kat, you will be paired with Kimberly. Thorn, you will be with Landen. Jake, you're with Jacob. Please go one team to a door. A transport shuttle will take you to your base."

Again, they did as they were told. Each team stepped up to a small hatch. The hatches opened and each team loaded into a pod. The pods rode along a track and dropped off one by one. While they were in the pods, they changed into training jumpsuits. Slowly, the pods drifted down into their respective landing bays. The hatches opened, and the teams jumped out.

Kat and Kimberly jumped out and immediately went for the weapons. There were massive tubes that resembled rocket launchers. Each picked one up. Then they picked up several grenades. Kat through one and realized that it was a paint grenade.

"We're playing PAINTBALL! What the heck!" she yelped.

"Probably so we don't actually kill each other," Kimberly commented.

They mounted the mongoose, with Kat driving and Kimberly shooting. They drove out of the base and to the top of a hill.

"There's the first base," Kat said.

They drove towards it quickly, trying to get there in time to set the bomb as quickly as possible. They got to the door and stopped. A few minutes later they heard the engine of a mongoose start up and watched as Thorn and Landen drove off towards Jake and Jacob's base. They quickly got to work. Kimberly started downloading the intel, and Kat started setting the bomb. When the intel was downloaded, Kimberly helped Kat finish wiring the bomb. They both ran out to their mongoose and sped away.

**Thorn and Landen:**

"Intel stolen, bomb set," came the unwelcome voice in the boys' headset.

"How is that possible?" Landen asked. "Jake and Jacob are still in their base."

"The girls must be at ours. My question is why they stole the intel and destroyed the base." Jake answered.

"Probably. Let's go back to the base and diffuse the bomb."

"Good idea. Drive their fast. I'll stay here and go steal the intel when this team leaves.

A voice crackled in their headsets. "Attention everybody. The teams have been decided. Red Team is Kat and Kimberly. Green Team is Landen and Thorn. Gold Team is Jake and Jacob. Please resume the game," said Kreft. "Good luck."

Landen drove off. Thorn crept closer to the Gold Base.

**Red Team:**

"Here comes one of the boys," Kat said, watching the road with her view magnified.

"Good. I'll take them out when they get to the pass. Tell me when he's close," Kimberly responded.

They watched on as the mongoose drove closer.

"Target identified. It's Landen," Kat told Kimberly.

"Good. This should be fun."

The mongoose drove closer. As it started into the pass, Kimberly loaded her rocket launcher and took aim. She saw the tip of the mongoose come out of the pass and fired. Kat looked on.

"Direct Hit. Landen is down," Kat confirmed.

The pair walked down to the mongoose. Landen was lying beside it, his suit locked up. Kimberly jumped onto the mongoose and drove up the hill. Kat jumped on the original mongoose and they started driving towards the Gold base. As they drove off, the Green base exploded in a ball of red paint.

"One down, one to go," Kimberly said.

And they drove on towards the Gold base.

**Gold Team:**

"I see a Green team member. He is alone," Jacob said.

"Good. I'll go take him out. This should be fun," Jake told him.

Jake walked up the stairs to a balcony near the top of the base. He located the best vantage point and kneeled down. He saw the Green team member sitting alone on top of the hill. He took aim…and fired. The rocket flew down towards the top of the hill. The lone figure never even saw it coming. The rocket hit him square in the chest and he was knocked over.

A score report came up in his HUD. Green team was down, their base destroyed. Then Jake saw something he never expected. Two mongooses were headed towards the base. One of them stopped and picked up the Green team's gear. Then they drove into his base.

_Oh crap_, he thought. _They're going to win if I don't get down there_. He ran for the door. As he stepped over the threshold, Jacob ran into him.

"They're down there," he panted. "We've gotta stop them."

"Don't worry, we will."

They walked down the stairs, and Jake rolled a grenade into the room.

**Red Team:**

"Look out!" Kimberly shouted.

The pair rolled out of the way of the greande. Kimberly picked up her rocket launcher and fired a shell into the stairwell. A body fell out. It was Jacob.

They continued with their duty. Kat finished downloading the intel. Before Kimberly could set the bomb, a message flashed in everyone's HUD.

"Congratulations, Red Team. You are the winners."

Everyone gathered at the base and loaded into the return pod. They all rode back to the training module in stunned silence. No one had expected the girls to win. As they stepped out of the pod, Kreft came and shook all six of the members' hands.

"Good job today. Y'all probably want to go have some fun. You are dismissed for today. I want you back here bright and early tomorrow morning. You are to report and 0600 hours. Dismissed"

The six teens sprinted back to the bunk room. Once inside, they all slapped high fives. They took off their training suits and changed into warm-up suits. Then they ate dinner.

"Nice shot," Landen told Kimberly.

"Thanks. I don't know about you all, but I had a lot of fun today."

"Yeah, me too. That was the fastest win in a paintball game I've ever seen," Thorn said.

"We should probably go to sleep. What time is it?" Jake asked.

"10:00. We should go to sleep."

"Good night everybody."

"Good night."

And still, the Head watched, calculating their odds against the new threat on Solace-311. "That was a good practice. Even I am impressed," he said.


	6. The Mission

**Come on people. Why aren't you writing reviews? Only two people have so far. I NEED INPUT (Number 5 is Alive). Please people; I'm getting tired of asking.**

Kat couldn't sleep. She had lain awake for several hours, thinking about what this new life meant. She knew that this experience was special, but she also knew that they were training to be warriors. The Human-Covenant War was long since over, and none of the colonies were revolting. So why, she asked herself, are we being trained to be super soldiers. The questions rolled through her mind until, finally, she fell asleep in complete and total exhaustion.

The next morning the six got up before the alarm even went off. They quickly got showered and dressed. They ate a quick breakfast of sausage and biscuits, and then ran to the training module. Kreft was talking into his headset when they arrived.

"Yes sir, will do sir. I'm just concerned about the rigor of this…. No sir, I'm not arguing with you. OK, sir. Goodbye."

"Who was that?" Kat asked.

"The Head. He wants your training to go faster. Apparently your services are needed."

"But the war is over. And the colonies are at peace. What could possibly be going wrong?" Thorn asked.

"I don't know, but the Head seems worried. We have to triple the speed of your training."

"Wow. So how fast do we have to be trained now?" Landen questioned.

"Your basic training will take three more years. The rest of it will be on the job training. We have an older Spartan arriving when you graduate. He will help with your training while you are traveling. However, I do not know what your assignment will be. I will also be traveling with you. Today we will be on the gun range all day. Your lunch will be brought in. Understand?"

"Yes sir!" the group responded.

They all walked to the gun range, wondering what threat could be so big that they were needed. The even bigger question was why they were needed so quickly. They walked at an accelerated pace. All six knew that this was going to be grueling.

**Three Years Later:**

"As far as this base is concerned, you have finished your basic training. Therefore, with great pride, we pronounce you fully fledged Spartans IV's. We are very proud of your accomplishments during training. We hope these accomplishments will carry on onto the battlefield." Kreft said.

Beside him were Dr. Chang, Col. Shaun Robertson, and Overseer. The six new Spartans stood on the stage in front of him wearing their new Mark VIII MJOLNIR armor.

"In congratulations, we present you each with an A.I. There A.I.'s will help you in your fight. It pains me to say that you will be shipped off as soon as this ceremony is over," he continued. "Please come forward and receive your A.I.'s."

Jacob was the first to come forward. "Jacob, your A.I.'s name is Tharkas. He has been given information on all known Covenant, aliens, and weapons. I hope that you are safe in these coming months." Next up was Kimberly. "Your A.I.'s name is Edinex. She has multiple craft's blueprints downloaded, and can scan or hack computers that have blueprints for others. Maybe this will help you destroy enemy vessels." The third Spartan to rise was Landen. "Landen, your A.I. is named Orion. He is an expert at controlling vehicles." Then came Jake. "Jake, your A.I.'s name is Brind. He scans enemies and tells you how best to kill them whether it is close or long range." Thorn was fifth. "Thorn, your A.I. is named Reordin. He is well equipped to hack computer systems." The last of the group to come up was Kat. "Kat, you have a very special A.I. Your A.I.'s name is Korvana. Korvana is the "daughter" of Cortana, who was Master Chief's A.I. She is an expert at long range fighting."

The six all stood in a line. "You will leave in thirty minutes for your mission destination. We do not know where you are going; only the crew of the _Arc of Light_ and the Head know. The older Spartan is already onboard the ship, which is docked outside. The _Arc of Light_ is a very high tech ship. It is one of the best ships in the fleet. The older Spartan knows your mission and will brief you once you are on board," Kreft told them.

They all went to their bunk room and picked up their gear and weapons. Once they had all of their things, they walked towards the landing bay. Inside it was a sleek, streamlined ship.

"Whoa! What is that?" Jake breathed.

"Not sure. Looks like a transport mixed with a fighter." Thorn answered.

"That is a TC-35 Assault Transport. It is also known as a Seagull," a voice told them. "I'm Maverick."

The group turned around to see a fully armored Spartan II standing beside the door. His armor had numerous gashes and gouges all over it. He had obviously been in many fights. He motioned for them to follow him. He led the group into the back end of the Seagull and had them strap down their belongings. Once they were done, they sat down and waited. Maverick walked to the pilots chair and started punching in flight codes. He then turned and faced the group. "Kreft should be joining us in a few minutes. He just has to gather up some more gear. Then we will launch and go over to the ship."

"Why are you stuck on the _Arc of Light_?" Landen asked.

"I'm on the _Arc_ until my own ship is complete. Then I will and go command that ship. It should be here in time to aid us on this mission."

"When should it be here?" Kimberly asked him.

"It should be here in the next two or three weeks. The ship itself is already built, but some of the weapons are still being worked on. The construction crews are working on it as they travel. You see, my ship has a very special weapon on it. It should allow me to do much more damage to enemy vessels than most other UNSC ships."

"That sounds cool. So can you tell us what the mission is?" Jake asked him. "We've been wondering for the last three years."

"I'll tell you when we are securely on board the ship. Until then, there are security reasons to keep it unknown."

About that time Kreft walked into the Seagull. He too strapped in his gear, considerably more than that of the team.

"TC-35A1 requesting permission to launch." Maverick said into his mouthpiece.

"Permission granted. Good luck to you sir," Overseer said, watching them from the control room.

The Seagull lifted off and flew over to the launch bay doors. The doors opened, and they flew into the vacuum of space. As the team looked out of the cockpit viewports, they gasped. Floating next to the station was a massive cruiser. It was covered in weaponry and sensors. As they flew closer, and the ship got larger, they looked on with wonder. Not only was the ship huge, but this was their first time off of the station in three years. There hadn't even been any view ports to look out into space. They looked on in astonishment as they flew past the long destroyed remnants of a star.

Upon arriving in the launch bay of the _Arc of Light_, they were greeted by a bright, cheerful looking girl wearing MJOLNIR armor. Maverick stepped out of the Seagull and said to the team, "This is Sara. She is my girlfriend and partner for almost every mission. She will also be helping us with the mission.

**Just a small note: Sara is pronounced S, the letter R, ah. Kind of like saying the word are in between the first and last letters.**

They all unloaded their gear and walked into the ship itself. They followed Maverick through several corridors and onto a lift. They rode up several levels and stopped. They all stepped off of the lift and into a post living space.

"Welcome to our home," Sara said.

"Your bunk room is over this way," Maverick told them. He pointed to a door in the far wall. "There's room for all of you in here, so make yourselves at home. After all, this is your home for the next couple of weeks."

The six took their possessions to the bunk room and put them on their separate beds. Then they all walked back outside to the main room.

"This looks like an apartment," Kat commented.

"Basically, that's what it is. Bedrooms, kitchen, showers; it's all here. It's pretty comfortable living quarters," Sara said.

"So what's this super secret mission that we've been training for the last three years?" Thorn asked.

"Ah, quick to go back to original subject. I like that in a soldier," Maverick said. "This mission has been developing over the last four or five years. It started as a minor nuisance, and has developed into a full scale war." He took off his helmet. "This is a result of this problem," he said, pointing to his right eye. "My eye was shot out by an enemy gunner."

"So what is the actual problem?" Jacob asked.

"The problem is that it seems that the Covenant is coming back. We are heading to Solace-311. This planet was once a peaceful archeological place. We, the UNSC that is, had discovered a piece of Forerunner technology and wanted to uncover it completely. We've been digging there for the last seven years. Four years ago, a small craft slammed into the planet about three kilometers north of our biggest dig site. We sent three marines to go investigate. They never returned. We immediately sent a full battalion to the crash site. What we found there was horrifying. It was a coral reef in the middle of a cove. The horrifying part was that it was swarming with Brutes."

"Brutes?" Kimberly exclaimed. "I thought that they had been exiled with the rest of the Covenant."

"They had been. We realized the small craft was actually a clump of three or four Phantoms filled with Brutes and Jackals. The Kig-Yar were stationed around the perimeter of the crash site, keeping anybody from approaching. We found the three marines in their warthog. All three had the marks of an attack from long range from Kig-Yar. The Jiralhanae had set up a small radio station to call for help. We destroyed it with a rocket, but apparently they had already sent out an S.O.S. We fought with them and killed many Jiralhanae. We suffered minimal losses. However, within a few days, several Heavy Cruisers were circling over head. They sent down a few Phantoms. We saw them land around the reef. Apparently they didn't like what they found. The Phantoms immediately flew back up to the cruisers. The cruisers dropped altitude and deployed several hundred Phantoms. Our initial response was to call for help from other UNSC. An alien force this size had been unheard of since the fall of the Covenant. One bright gold Phantom landed near one of the dig sites. The doors opened, and an honor guard lined up. Then a San 'Shyuum floated down in a gravity chair. He told us that the Covenant had risen again, and were set on revenge against the humans and Sangheili for killing the Prophet of Truth. Since then there has been a savage fight on Solace-311. The first battle where we killed the first Jiralhanae is where I lost my eye. A few days after the visit from the San 'Shyuum, seven UNSC cruisers appeared out of slipspace. They have been aiding our ground troops and trying to destroy the New Covenant Cruisers. We have had little luck gaining ground."

"So where do we come in?" Landen asked.

"You six are going to be deployed in a Seagull and will attempt to land on one of the Cruisers. You will destroy the main reactors and get off the ship before it explodes. Hopefully this will instill enough fear in the New Covenant that it will get them to retreat, or at least halt attacks long enough for us to get more troops here."

"You expect us to do this with as little training as we have?" Jake asked him. "You guys must be crazy."

"We have two weeks to get to Solace-311. You will be given specialize training on the way."

"Will it just be us by ourselves?" Thorn asked.

"No. Sara, Kreft, and I will be boarding the vessel with you."

"Good. By the way, can we have some food? I'm starving."

"Go change into some comfortable clothes and then we will eat. What do you all want?"

"PIZZA!" the six chorused.

"Sounds good to me. It'll be ready in twenty minutes."

The six Spartan IV's walked into the bunk room and changed. They walked back out to the main room, where they ate in silence. They all went to bed early that night. It was the first time they had gone to bed early in three years.

**Sorry it's taken me so long to write this chapter. I've been doing research for it and I've had to deal with school starting back. Oh well. Anyway people, WRITE SOME REVIEWS. PLEASE!**


	7. Dreadnought

**Why aren't you people writing reviews? Tell me what you think!**

"We are approaching the battle zone. All personnel to their battle stations."

The call rang out through the _Arc of Light_. Maverick woke with a start. The last couple of weeks had been slow. There hadn't been much need to teach the team how to blow something up. They had that down to a science. Even piloting vehicles wasn't an issue. So the last couple of weeks had been slow. Now it was time for action.

"Come on guys, let's get to the Seagull," he mumbled. He walked over to his storage chamber and retrieved his armor. After he and Sara had suited up, they stepped out into the main room. The team had already assembled weapons in hand and ready to go. Kreft grabbed a couple of plasma rifles and an energy sword.

"Let's move!" Maverick said. "Follow me!" He walked over to an alcove that the team hadn't really paid much attention to. He walked into it and hit a button. The wall slid open to reveal an elevator already stocked with weaponry. They all walked in and grabbed more ammunition. Then they stepped into a circle in the center of the floor. Maverick hit a button with his foot and a control panel rose up out of the floor. He entered a few commands and the circle started to fall. The platform took the group down into the belly of the ship. Once there, they all got off and walked to another door. Kreft opened it with another code, and the group walked into a small hangar. In it was another Seagull. It was fully armed with heat seeking missiles and other weapons. All nine climbed in and prepared to launch. Maverick sat down in the pilots chair and activated the controls. He pulled an A.I. chip out of his helmet and plugged it into the dashboard. A person appeared on the A.I. pad. The person who appeared on the pad was an A.I. that resembled the Greek Goddess Artemis.

"Hello everyone," she said. "I am FERA."

The team closed the door of the Seagull and buckled into their respective seats. Maverick opened the landing bay doors and boosted into the blackness of space.

The seagull floated outside the massive _Arc of Light_. The Spartans could see the New Covenant craft floating off in the distance. One of them stuck out more than others. It was huge. It was about twenty times longer than the other crafts, and about ten times as wide. It appeared to be a floating city. The floating city had something that looked Forerunner in the very center.

"It's like a reincarnation of the High Charity," Maverick breathed.

It was, in fact, the _High Charity II_. It was huge. It was covered with buildings and turrets. The _Arc of Light_ was dwarfed in comparison.

"Well, I think we know our target," Kreft said. "That thing has got to go."

Edinex downloaded the schematics of the High from the Seagull's scanner. "The power for the ship comes from the structure in the center. It appears to be another Dreadnought. The easiest way to disable the city would be to take the Dreadnought. Either that or destroy the connections that are supplying the rest of the city with power. The easier thing to do would be destroy the connections, but then the Covenant could repair them and repower the city. If we did that though, it would buy us some time to destroy as much as we can."

"We should target the Dreadnought first. If we can disable its power supply, or at least the power connections, we can stun the _Charity_ and possibly steal the Dreadnought, since they can't easily be destroyed. Master Chief tried a long time ago, and even he couldn't do it. We have to make sure this ship can't be used after we get done with it," Maverick said.

The Seagull drifted ever closer to the _High Charity II_. The _Charity_ ignored them as they floated towards the center, where the Dreadnought sat, quietly powering the massive war machine beneath it. The six new Spartans looked at each other with growing apprehension.

The Seagull was now directly over the _High Charity II_. Maverick lowered the craft down towards the center of the _Charity_, taking care not to do anything that might cause suspicion from the inhabitants of the city.

When the Seagull had finally gotten within the skyline of the city, Maverick hit a button and sped up. "Now that we have the cloaking on the craft activated, we should be able to get directly to the Dreadnought."

The Seagull flew between massive spires that were the buildings of the _Charity_. Maverick landed the Seagull beside the Dreadnought and powered the tiny craft down.

"This is going way to well," Kat said. "There is no way that we could have gotten this far without being caught."

"Yes, but at least we have been successful," Jacob said.

"Don't start talking like we've already won," Maverick said. "We still have a lot of work to do."

All nine of the occupants of the Seagull grabbed their weapons and stepped out of the Seagull. They were directly beside one wall of the Dreadnought. Edinex scanned it.

"It is definitely a Dreadnought. I thought that they had all been discovered. It's interesting that the Forerunners left more than one. I thought that most of them were destroyed before the original firing of the Halo array," she said. "Mendicant Bias's Dreadnought was the only one that we had seen.

They quickly found their way to an opening in the side of the Dreadnought and entered. They could immediately tell that the Covenant thought of it as a temple.

"Fan out. We need to eliminate all hostiles so we can get this thing up and running. Report back here in one hour. If you are not back within ten minutes of that, we will come looking for you. Do not get caught. Each of our suits has been outfitted with active camouflage, so try to stay invisible and out of sight. Do not draw attention to yourself. Kill all hostiles quickly and quietly. Understand?" Maverick said.

"Yes sir!" everyone responded.

"Good. Now go. Remember to be back here in one hour. We will decide what course of action to take once we get back."

**Kat:**

Kat walked through a big set of double doors. Inside the next room were several Jiralhanae standing around an access terminal. She pulled her combat knife out of its sheath and snuck up behind the first Jiralhanae and stabbed him in the back. He immediately fell to his knees. He was dead before he hit the floor. The others looked up in alarm. None of them had seen the knife wound in their comrade's back. Kat moved on to the next Brute. She went to a Brute that was several feet away, so that it would not seem planned. She quickly dispatched him. Now the Brutes were looking around warily. They knew that something was not right. Kat backed into a corner. She waited until a Jiralhanae backed into her corner, and then stabbed him in the back. She quickly ran to the other side of the room and killed the fourth Brute. There was only one left in the room. Kat saw him start to run towards the door. She jumped onto his back and cut his throat. Then she went to the access terminal. She saw a something on it that immediately caused her to call the rest of her team.

When the rest of the team gathered around the terminal ten minutes later, they saw a map of the galaxy showing on the hologram. Certain star systems were highlighted. Nearby the systems were rings. The locations of all the Halos in the array were shown on this map. Reordin scanned the information on the terminal and transferred it to Thorn's HUD. Included in the data files was a report from Offensive Bias, an A.I. that the Forerunners had created to fight Mendicant Bias and the Flood.

"Nice find, but we still need to get the Dreadnought out of the city. Keep searching for stuff like this though. If we can find Offensive, he could be a great asset to us, especially if the Flood resurges. Meet up in another hour," Maverick said.

With that, the group split back up. Kat continued down the hall, not seeing any Jiralhanae. She did at one time see a couple of Unggoy, but she killed them without a problem. She found a lift and entered it. She rode the lift as high as it would go. When she stepped off, she found herself in another deserted corridor. She walked down the corridor, and then ducked through a doorway when two Jiralhanae Chieftains walked past. Once they were past her position, she snuck up behind the bigger of the two and stabbed him in the back. The other Chieftain went for his hammer, but never got the chance. Kat ran him through the stomach with her knife and then slit his throat. She picked up his hammer and slung it across her back. She then proceeded upwards towards the control room.

**Kreft:**

Kreft walked down the deserted corridor, looking for Brutes. He walked around a corner and found himself looking across a wide room with an energy bridge spanning the middle. It would have been easy for him to cross, had there not been thirty or forty Jiralhanae milling about on the floor below.

"Uh, guys? I think I'm going to need a bit of assistance. I'm looking at about thirty-six Brutes. Almost all of them are armed. All of them have their armor on. Maverick, what do you think?" Kreft said into his headset.

"Kreft, wait for my signal. We will all get into position. We will trace your beacon and find out exactly where you are. Then we will all line up and throw some grenades down into the room. After that we will take out any Brutes that are left. Everyone, meet me at Kreft's location," Maverick responded.

Kreft only had to wait a few minutes. When everyone had gathered, Maverick said, "Alright. Everyone will throw two grenades down there. We've picked up various grenades from the other Brutes we have killed. Throw anything except a frag grenade. Ready?"

Everyone answered with an affirmative.

"OK. Go."

Maverick threw two plasma grenades, and Kreft threw a spike and an incendiary. Sara managed to stick a Brute Chieftain in the head with a plasma grenade. When everyone had thrown two, they all unsheathed their knives. Everyone except Kat did. Kat armed the gravity hammer that she had taken from the Chieftain.

"Everyone ready?" Kreft asked.

"You bet. Let's do this," Jacob answered.

Kat was the first to jump down into the room. She dropped down with a perfect swing of the hammer, nailing a Brute on her way down. He went flying across the room, leveling two other Brutes. Thorn dropped in and slashed a Brute Ultra with an energy sword. Sara sat on the upper level with a silenced sniper rifle, quickly mowing down the oncoming Brutes. Maverick armed his weapons for combat. He had an energy sword in each hand, and a hammer over his back. He was a whirlwind of death, killing anything dumb enough to get within lunging distance of him.

When the Brutes had been dispatched, the team walked towards a door on the far end of the room. Thorn opened the door with a small device that was standard for most teams. They walked into a long corridor that was dimly lighted and deserted. It appeared that no one had walked these halls in hundreds of years.

"Well, this must not be the way to the control room. Still, I wonder what's at the end of this corridor," Kimberly remarked.

They walked down the corridor in silence, each with his or her weapon at the ready. The corridor dead ended at another locked door. Thorn opened this one as well. The team walked stealthily into the room. The room was massive. However, it was almost completely empty. Only a small console stood in the center with a light blinking on and off. Maverick walked up to it and hit the blinking button.

**Find out what happens in the next chapter. Please write more reviews. Adios.**


	8. Descent

**WRITE SOME REVIEWS! How many times do I have to ask you?**

"_Greetings reclaimers. I am Offensive Bias."_

"Whoa. Who are you? Or more appropriately, what are you?" Sara asked.

"_I am Offensive Bias, the younger brother of Mendicant Bias. I am a Forerunner A.I."_

"Then what are you doing on board a Covenant occupied Dreadnought?" Kreft asked him.

"_They captured my Dreadnought and I was powerless to stop them,"_ Offensive answered.

"You couldn't just launch it out of here?" Kat asked.

"_You may have heard of my older brother Mendicant trying to do the same. Lekgolo worms stopped that rather quickly. I'm afraid that my own attempts would end the same way. So I sit here and bide my time. Eventually these fools will slip up and I will liberate myself and my Dreadnought. Hopefully, their slipup is now, with you. You have broken into the heart of their city. If you will help me out of here, I will help you."_

"How can you help us?" Maverick asked.

"_Easily. I know how this ship works, and when and where the fools on board are. They do not even know of my existence, much less the things I know about them. We could be invaluable to each other."_

"True dat!" said Jacob.

"_Would you be so kind as to enter this sequence into the control panel below me? I need it to be released. The code is X3o725FORERUNNER37596GXRTS: Release."_

Maverick entered the code. As soon as he did, the cylinder in the center of the room slid open to reveal a small floating robot, partially resembling 343 Guilty Spark. The small bot floated out into the open.

"_Ah, that is better,"_ it said.

The small bot led the team to the other side of the room and opened a door.

"_This is the way to the main control room. The Covenant fools on board the ship were never able to find it. They somehow managed to breach all of my security protocols and remotely controlled the energy within this Dreadnought. We must get out of here before they realize what has happened. It is crucial that they do not realize what is about to happen."_ With this, Offensive opened up another door and they all stepped into a massive circular room with several control panels glowing with a soft blue light. Offensive floated over to a control panel that was raised above the rest. He entered a code that opened a panel in the center of the room. Rising out of the center of the room was a map of the galaxy. The map was the same as the one that Kat had found earlier.

"We've already seen this map!" she exclaimed.

"_You have? It has been locked up for so long. How have you seen it?"_

"It was showing on a terminal in a room on the lower levels. I killed some Jiralhanae that were looking at it," she said.

"_This is not good. If those Covenant scumbags have already located the other Halos, the galaxy could be doomed. If they activate the array…. We must stop them."_ Offensive was frantic. He went to the control panels and put in more and more codes. He overrode the Covenant battle net and counter hacked all of their intrusions. A few seconds after the Covenant control had been disabled, Offensive fired up the engines. He charged them up for several minutes. Then they heard voices.

"The only explanation of this breakdown is that someone has broken into the control room. We must find them and interrogate them. We must find out how they did it," came a gruff voice.

"_You did close the door to my chamber, didn't you?"_ Offensive asked.

Kreft slapped his forehead. "No. We didn't. We had cleared out most of the Jiralhanae up to this level and didn't think to close it."

Offensive went to another control panel and shut the doors between the Jiralhanae and the control room.

"NO! They have sealed themselves in. Well, let this be their tomb. I want this door on constant watch. No one is to go through it."

"Well, that screws us up," Jake muttered.

Offensive entered yet another code into a control panel. The team heard cursing from the other side of the door, then screams as the security measures went into place.

"Or maybe not," Kimberly said. "What did you do?"

"_I activated the security measures. Basically, Sentinels implanted in the walls opened fire. Anyone not in this control room will be killed. I also released my own personal guard of sentinels. We should not have to worry about any more interruptions." _

A loud cracking sound entered the room. _"That would be us breaking free,"_ Offensive told them. The sound became louder and louder. Suddenly, the door to the control room flew across the open space. Standing in the doorway was a hulking Mgalekgolo. The team could see another one standing behind him. Sara aimed her sniper rifle and opened fire on the undefended places on the creature's "neck."

"Everybody! Get DOWN!" Kreft yelled as he fired four plasma launcher rounds at the doorway.

"_Please do be careful. We do not need extensive damage to the hull. It would keep us from launching,"_ Offensive warned.

The rounds all connected with the Mgalekgolo's neck and exploded. The Hunter was thrown from its feet and into the other Hunter. The second Hunter was also thrown from its feet. Maverick ran up to it and slashed its back several times with his energy sword. The beast lay flat on the ground, no longer moving. Maverick walked back to the control room. He switched off his sword and reattached it to his leg. The cracking sound had escalated to avalanche proportions.

Kat looked down the hallway in time to see several Jiralhanae Chieftains wielding gravity hammers coming down the hall.

"Guys, we have company," she said.

Offensive reentered the security code. _"They have disabled the security."_

Then a message appeared on the monitors and on the hologram in the middle of the room.

UNIDENTIFIED Access to security protocols denied

"_Those fools have uploaded their A.I.'s into the network. They are bypassing my commands. Reclaimer, bring your A.I. over here,"_ he said, turning to Maverick.

"OK…. What for?" Maverick asked.

"_So that she can get rid of these marauders. I cannot go in, but she can. So bring her over here!"_

Maverick walked over to the control panel and pulled FERA's chip out of his helmet and plugged it into the main console. Her avatar appeared floating in the middle of the room.

"They've already breached most of the security parameters. I'm putting up some firewalls to try and keep them out. Give me just a second," she said, holding her hand to her forehead.

The engines were screaming now, but the locks holding the Dreadnought down were not letting up.

"I've blocked most of their attempts to get into the main system. If I can disable the locks, we should be able to get out of here. Kimberly, bring Edinex over here."

Kimberly did as she was told. Edinex's avatar appeared beside FERA's. She was a tall, gangly Sangheili wearing Flight armor. She downloaded the Dreadnought's schematics and then the _High Charity II_'s. She found the locks on the schematics and directed FERA to their access point through the computer networks. They both set to work on the various firewalls the Covenant A.I.'s had placed on the lock controls. After working for several minutes, they had disabled most of the firewalls. The only remaining firewall was a Forerunner one.

"Offensive, see what you can make of this," FERA instructed.

Offensive floated over to the console and accessed the firewalls parameters. _"Oh this is simple, really. If I reset the firewall and then access the files while the firewall is rebooting, I can get right through. Or, since I am the pilot of this ship, I can just instruct the locks to disengage."_

FERA and Edinex groaned. "If only we had known it was that easy. We've been trying to get through that firewall for most of this time," FERA said.

With the locks disengaged, the Dreadnought lifted out of its holding lock. The _High Charity II_ dropped out from underneath them. Offensive made sure that all airlocks were closed then piloted the Dreadnought towards the surface of Solace-311. Maverick waited a few minutes, then instructed FERA to start the detonation sequence.

"I had forgotten about that!" Jake exclaimed.

The team had Offensive switch the view screen to show the _High Charity II_. FERA initiated the sequence, and ten seconds later, a massive fireball leapt up from the center of the _High Charity II_. The city broke in half and started falling towards the surface of the planet below. As it fell, more and more chunks broke off, plummeting towards the seas of Solace-311. The Dreadnought began a controlled descent towards the UNSC base. Kreft contacted the base and instructed them to send two escort fighters up to defend them on their way down. "We have precious cargo," he said. "Don't let the Covenant fools near us."

Six Sabres flew up and surrounded the Dreadnought. A few Space Banshees attempted a rush, but the Sabres quickly shot them down. As they entered the atmosphere, a Corvette shot struck one of the Sabres and vaporized it. Not even rubble was left. The remaining Sabres peeled off and went into attack mode. Two more shots flew towards them. One struck a Sabre and the other flew past. Offensive floated over to another one of the control panels. The hologram in the center of the room changed once again, this time showing the Corvette. _"I would get your fighters out of the way if I were you,"_ Offensive said.

Maverick told them what to do, and the four remaining Sabres flew behind the Dreadnought. The hologram showed a crosshair lock onto the Corvette that was firing. There was a humming sound, and then suddenly a massive blue beam shot out from the center of the Dreadnought, blazing through the shields and ripping apart the engines. The Corvette exploded with a massive cloud of purple fire and debris. Offensive focused on one of the other cruisers and opened fire on it. The blue beam hit one of the thrusters and caused it to rip itself apart. The back half was burning fiercely, while the front was just starting to catch fire.

"_I can only fire it twice every few minutes. Hopefully we will make it to the surface before they get up the nerve to fire again,"_ Offensive said. Maverick and Kimberly retrieved their A.I.s from the control panel and walked over to Offensive.

"Doesn't this thing have anymore weaponry?" Kimberly asked.

"_None that are as powerful. There are a few more weapons that we can control from those control panels over there."_

The team rushed over to the panel and activated the other weapons. They all focused on a Cruiser that was starting to attempt to enter the planet's atmosphere. When they opened fire, red bolts of energy flew towards the Cruiser. Again the shields were cut through quickly. Then Offensive maneuvered the Dreadnought so that the Cruiser was between them and the other Corvette. He fired the main weapon. Again, the blue beam cut through the Cruiser's armor, instantly destroying it. But the beam kept on going. It collided with the last Corvette and heavily damaged its shielding. About that time, the Sabres fanned out and flew back to their hangars. Offensive landed the Dreadnought in the middle of the makeshift base.

"We have touchdown!" Thorn yelled.

The team walked down to the lowest level and walked out into the base. All around them were wounded soldiers. Some were missing limbs, while others were just hobbling around. All of them turned to look at the team.

"Spartans? No way!" some muttered.

"I can't believe there are Spartans here," one marine said to his buddy.

"You better not be kidding with me," said the other, who had a bandage covering both his eyes.

The team walked into the base and into the debriefing room. They sat down and waited.

**Sorry it took me so long to write this one. I've been dealing with a bunch of school work. Please review.**


	9. Falcon Fire

**More school work. Sorry. Anyway, please enjoy and review!**

An ensign walked in and announced the arrival of the commanding officer. "Presenting General Robert Fortree. Please rise."

A tall man in his late fifties walked into the room. His uniform was covered with medals and ribbons. The very air he breathed seemed to be charged with confidence and power. But even he paled slightly when he saw the eight Spartans in full battle gear sitting at the table in front of him. He kept his cool, and walked to the head of the table.

"I have more or less been informed of the events leading up to your landing on the _High Charity II_. However, I need you to tell me exactly what happened after you landed, as well as what the hell that thing floating beside you is. Then I need you to help us fortify this little base and fend off the rest of the Covenant scum still on this rock."

The nine team members told him about how they had landed on the _High Charity II_, and how they had found the map with the location of the other Halos on a data terminal inside the Dreadnought. They told him about the room with the single cylinder containing Offensive and how they had broken the Dreadnought out of the city and come down to the surface.

"It sounds to me like you've had one hell of a ride. We probably have a couple of hours until the Covenant regroup. You have one hour to relax, then we need you on the front lines. Any questions?"

The team filed out of the debriefing room and went to their temporary barracks. Sara sat down beside Maverick on one of the beds and held his hand. She laid her head on his shoulder while he stroked her hair. Kat and Jake sat on the bunk across from them, looking out of the window at the marines running around reinforcing the walls and delivering supplies. Sara walked over to the window.

"It's amazing to watch how fast these people work when their lives depend on it. Most people would not move nearly this fast under normal circumstances. I hope we can help them somehow," she murmured.

Maverick walked over to her and kissed the top of her head. "We will help them. It's our job."

She smiled up at him. "You always did know exactly what we had to do."

"That's why you liked me in the first place."

"Yeah, and you still haven't changed, even after all these years."

Suddenly all eight Spartans' helmets beeped. Maverick picked up his and put it on. "Accept the message," he instructed FERA. General Fortree's face appeared on Mavericks HUD.

"Sorry, but we're going to have to cut your relaxation short. Reconnaissance reports show that the Covenant forces are already marching towards us. Get outside and help reinforce the walls. Then meet me in the armory in forty five minutes."

Maverick looked at his team. "Put on your helmets and mount up. They're coming."

All nine of the team rushed outside to find another ensign waiting for them. He led the over to a truck full of supplies.

"We need all of this stuff over at the north wall. There you will unload them and rebuild that wall. It was hit the hardest."

Kreft thanked him and jumped into the driver's seat. The rest of the team loaded into the back with the supplies.

As they drove through the base, they saw even more carnage. Covenant bodies lay strewn across the lawn. But human bodies outnumbered them ten to one. Workers were clearing a path through the bodies for the relief effort. As they drove by, they saw one marine spasm on the ground. Kat called out, "HEY! There's a live one over here!" Immediately several workers rushed over to the injured marine and helped him to the infirmary. This happened several more times on the trail to the north wall.

When they arrived at the site, several marines ran over to the truck to help them unload the building supplies. They formed a chain and passed each thing out to its specified location. Not soon after, they were done passing things out and had started rebuilding the wall. They realized halfway through that it still wasn't going to be enough. One marine had a morbid thought. "Why don't we pile their dead bodies up to hold them off for a while?"

With no better option, everyone else agreed. Several marines jumped into the truck and drove a little ways off and started piling bodies into the truck. Maverick sent a message to the general asking for all available troops and supply trucks.

"OK," he said. "Just out of curiosity, what do you need it for?"

"We're piling the Covenant bodies up to make up for the lack of materials for the wall."

"Somewhat morbid and disgusting, but hey, it ought to work."

A few minutes later, a couple hundred marines and about thirty trucks rolled into the courtyard. The marines immediately loaded the trucks with the dead bodies of their enemies. Their own dead they loaded reverently in one other truck and took over to the infirmary to be prepared for burial. Three hours later, the wall of bodies was huge.

"There is no way they will get through this!" One of the marines exclaimed.

"I wouldn't say that. They're still pretty powerful," Kreft warned them.

The small army waited. Several more hours went by. Marines constantly checked and rechecked their weapons. The Spartans prepared their armament. The vehicles were kept running and the missiles primed. Offensive had gone back into the Dreadnought and launched it, with a crew of thirty technicians on board. Maverick received a message on his HUD.

"Covenant drop ships on approach. Approximately ten miles out. They are escorted by about twenty Banshees."

"Thanks. We'll be ready for them." He switched his speakers on. "All right everybody. Enemy is about ten miles out. Several drop ships flanked by about twenty banshees. Jake, Thorn. I want you two to come with me. We'll be flying air support in one Falcon. Sara, Kat, Jacob. You three will be in the other Falcon. Landen, Kimberly, Kreft. Man the tanks and prepare to shoot down oncoming ships. Marines, follow your gut instinct. Let's hit 'em where it hurts!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a massive explosion rocked the makeshift wall. "Six incoming Wraiths!" One of the technicians shouted over the intercom. Each Spartan ran to his or her assigned positions. Jacob jumped into the pilot's seat of his falcon.

"Falcon II online."

"Falcon I online," Maverick responded.

The two falcons were barely above the wall when four banshees dive bombed them.

"Get them down. We can't deal with this much air fire. Arm the friggin missiles!" Jake screamed into his headset.

"We're working on it. We're under pretty heavy fire down here," one of the marines responded.

It was true. In just a few seconds, the entire force had gone from organized to complete chaos. Marines ran screaming from holes in the walls where massive strike forces of Yan'me were flooding in. Other holes were completely blocked by Jiralhanae chieftains wielding gravity hammers. Kreft fired his tank into the oncoming hoard of Yan'me. Instantly, thirty of them fell to the ground dead. Several others were injured. Landen fired a round right through the head of a Jiralhanae Chieftain. The trunk slumped to the ground and the round kept flying. A phantom appeared over the wall. Its doors opened, ready to rain more troops into the melee. Falcon I flew by and Thorn threw a pack of C4 into the phantom.

"DUCK AND COVER!" he yelled. He activated the charge and the phantom erupted into flames and fell on a ghost that had just come through the wall. An Unggoy hero came through the wall holding a fuel rod cannon. Green bolts flew out, hitting several marines and sending them flying. Kat fired a grenade at the small hero, striking him in the head and killing him instantly.

More rounds shook the makeshift wall. Maverick's Falcon flew over the wall and spotted the oncoming wraiths. Immediately, two of the wraiths opened fire on his position. The plasma arcs flew over the Falcon, slamming into the wall on the other side of the compound and sending several marines flying. Jake and Thorn unloaded on the wraiths. The gunners unfortunate enough to be on the outside of the vehicle were quickly slaughtered. The two Spartans focused on one of the wraiths a quickly blew it apart. The second one posed a bit more of a challenge. Having seen what had happened to the other Wraith, it quickly started moving around quickly. Its mortar rounds flew through the air and whistled past the Falcon. Thorn landed a lucky shot in the gun of the Wraith. It fired another shot…and instantaneously vaporized in a cloud of smoke and fire. Two of the other Wraiths turned their attention to the skies. Maverick saw a mortar round coming that they could not avoid.

"GET OUT!" he screamed. Jake and Thorn dived out of the Falcon just before the round exploded into the tail, sending flaming bits of shrapnel everywhere.

"MAVERICK!" Sara shouted over the intercom. "Please don't let him be dead. Oh please don't let him be dead," she whimpered. They all watched as the flaming wreckage slammed into the ground with another massive fireball shooting into the air. Jake and Thorn landed on the ground a few seconds after the explosion, coughing and hacking. Thorn was holding his left arm against his chest. More Wraith shots poured over the wall. One hit the wreckage of the Falcon, sending flying end over end into a building. Sara was still sobbing. She brought the Falcon level with the wall. "Ok you two, rain hell on them."

The Falcon rose higher. "THIS IS FOR MAVERICK!" she screeched over the speakers. She flew like a hornet, diving a swooping and leaving devastating explosions behind her. Kat and Jacob fired grenades and rockets every couple of seconds. The offending Wraiths exploded. The remaining two turned tail and fled. Kat locked a missile onto one of the Wraiths and fired. The Brute piloting the Wraith jumped out and ran for his life. Kat redirected the missile at him. He jumped right as the missile was about to hit him. He landed on the missile and held on to it for dear life. Kat again redirected the missile, this time at the last Wraith. The Brute on the missile screamed as the missile struck, killing him and the Wraith in a ball of purple fire.

Falcon II flew back into the compound and landed on the field. Kimberly and Kreft ran to the cockpit and helped Sara out. She took off her helmet and sank to her knees, sobbing. "I can't believe he's gone," she whimpered. "We've done almost everything together. We were going to retire and start a family."

"And we still can," a voice crackled out of the headset. "Will someone please come get this blasted peace of rubble off of me? It feels like I'm in a freaking furnace."

The rest of the team looked over at the wreckage of the falcon. It had landed upside down in the dirt. They could see Maverick pressed up against the glass, trying to break it.

"Why did they have to make the cockpit canopy this strong?" he grumbled. Sara and Kreft rushed over to help him. They flipped the dead falcon over and smashed the glass in the canopy. Kreft lifted Maverick out of the wreckage and set him down in the dirt. His armor was ripped to shreds, and he had a massive gash in his chest where the control systems had exploded into him. His helmet was cracked on one side, and his right leg was twisted in an unnatural position. Sara pulled off his helmet and kissed him, hard. He hugged her back.

"Could you lay off a little? No offense, but I feel like I got run into by a cruiser."

Sara stepped back, slightly embarrassed.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Now, could one of you help me to the infirmary? I need to get this stuff fixed up."

Maverick leaned on Kreft's shoulder as he limped to the infirmary. The rest of the team grinned.

"You know what they say," Jake chuckled. "Spartans never die!"

The seven friends laughed with relief.

**Thanks for reading. Please review and suggest this story to your friends. See ya later!**


	10. Siege

**Another chapter. Please review. Yadda Yadda and all that. Back to the story.**

A banshee bomb went off, rocking the ground near the group and sending debris flying. The seven Spartans instantly went back into combat mode.

"This never ends does it?" Thorn groaned. He picked his sniper rifle up and took aim. A banshee flew into his sights and exploded as a super heated metal projectile ripped through its energy core. Two more banshees went down in this way.

A Gauss hog drove up and a marine jumped out of the driver's seat. "She's all yours."

Kat, Jake, and Landen jumped in. Kat manned the turret while Jake drove. Landen sat in the passenger seat holding rocket launcher. The gauss hog spit gravel as it tore off towards the destroyed wall. As it left, a transport hog drove up and Sara, Kimberly, Thorn, and Jacob jumped on board. Their hog followed the gauss hog until they reached the Wraith that had been abandoned. Kimberly and Sara jumped out of the Transport hog and into the Wraith. Thorn looked back to see nine banshees converging on their location. Kimberly turned the Wraith around fired a shell into the midst of the banshees. The shell ripped off one wing of a banshee and crashed into another, sending the dead pilot flying. Kat turned the Gauss turret towards the oncoming banshees and opened fire. Three more went down in quick succession. A banshee bomb arced down and struck right beside the warthog, flipping it over. Landen flipped it back over and the trio jumped back in. Landen fired two rockets into a banshee, and then Kat fired a gauss round into one of the rockets. It exploded as the round pierced its casing, sending shrapnel into the remaining banshees. The other rocket struck one, with the expected result.

The remaining banshees bugged out. Thorn killed the pilot of one with an expertly placed bullet through the leg. It entered at the foot and left at the shoulder. Kat fired again. Now only two banshees remained. Sara jumped out of the turret of the Wraith and jumped towards one of the banshees.

"Hold your fire!" she instructed the other Spartans. She activated her jet pack and soared up beside one of the banshees. The pilot didn't notice her until it was too late. She grabbed onto the banshee and pulled the canopy open. The Brute looked up in alarm, and screamed as she kicked him into the air. She lowered herself into the pilot's position and closed the canopy. "Banshee secured," she crowed. She turned the banshee into an expert barrel roll and lined up her sights behind the last banshee. A green bolt flew from her banshee and into the other. The opposing banshee spiraled to the ground and exploded on impact, sending flames high into the air. Sara brought the banshee around and landed beside the Wraith. She jumped out and walked up to the transport hog. Thorn pulled her up into the back.

"Nice flying," he complimented her.

The Gauss hog drove up beside them.

"Let's get back to base," Jake said. "Sara, can you fly that thing back?"

"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem."

"What about you Kimberly? Can you drive the Wraith back?'

"Sure."

The four vehicles headed back to the base, their passengers in high spirits. They drove through a hole in the wall and parked outside the command building. Out of the whole base, it had been hit the hardest. The seven Spartans walked through the demolished building, looking for survivors. They walked into the communications part of the building and found that the ceiling had fallen in. Lying under the concrete slab with his arm and head sticking out was General Robert Fortree.

"Help me," he groaned.

Thorn motioned for the team to get on the sides of the slab. Six of them lifted the ceiling while Sara pulled the General out. She held him in her arms like a baby and ran towards the infirmary with the rest of the team trailing after her.

As soon as they entered the infirmary, Sara set the General down on a gurney and wheeled him into the ICU. Thorn ran out to fetch a doctor.

Once Fortree was in the safe care of the doctors, the group went to find Maverick and Kreft. They searched all over the infirmary and finally ran into them as they were walking out the door. Maverick was on crutches and had a cast over his chest, but otherwise he was fine.

"Oh, hey. We were just about to come and find you. Doc says I'll be fine. What've ya'll been up to?"

"You wouldn't believe what we've been up to," Jacob said, punching the air.

The team filled Maverick in on what had gone on in his short absence.

"Sounds like ya'll have been busy," he said when they were done. "Let's go check out the banshee and wraith you captured. I hear that they've made some major improvements to the technology."

The group walked over to the courtyard where they had left the two enemy vehicles. The two hogs had been removed. Maverick limped over to the banshee first.

"Wow. Looks like they've added a limited shield component," he commented.

"What? Where?" Sara asked. "I could have used that when I was up there."

"I'm surprised they didn't use them. See this small transmitter," he said, pointing to a small disc implanted in the bottom of the banshee. "It's a lot like the shield the Kig-Yar use. However, it seems to be more advanced in the fact that it covers the whole banshee. Jake, get in the banshee and power it up. I want you to activate the shields so I can see how they work."

Jake did as he was told. As soon as he turned on the shields, a blue purple skin incased the banshee. Kreft tried to touch it and received a nasty shock for his troubles.

"Well, apparently it's a pretty strong shield," he growled, holding his smarting hand.

"Power it down now," Maverick instructed him.

The banshee touched back down, but the shield was still up.

"Power the shields down too."

The shields faded away. Jake got out and looked at Kreft, who was still grumbling to himself.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"Shield has an electric pulse in it. I touched it and got shocked."

"Oh," Jake said. "Sorry."

"S'not your fault."

"Ok. Let's look at this Wraith," Maverick said. "Kimberly, get in and power it up."

She jumped in and turned the Wraith on.

"Now, fire a round at the wall of bodies."

A blue arc hit the wall and sent the dead covenant flying.

"Hey Maverick. The view screen comes up with a charging symbol when I pull the trigger. You want me to hold it down and fire?" Kimberly asked.

"Sure."

The team watched as a Wraith shot started to fire then stopped. They could see energy feeding into the plasma bolt. It changed from blue to purple then changed to a bloody crimson color. Finally it turned white.

"Fire."

Kimberly fired. The bolt shot straight out and struck the wall, vaporizing the bodies and kept on going. It finally hit the ground and put a six foot deep crater in the ground outside the base. A mushroom cloud of green smoke rose from the crater.

"Well then. I would say that they've made improvements, but that would be an understatement. By the way, where is Offensive?" Maverick asked.

"I don't know. Last I saw he was onboard the Dreadnought," Landen said.

Maverick opened up his comm. channel. "Engineer. Is Offensive Bias nearby?"

"Yes sir," the engineer responded.

"Tell him to bring the Dreadnought back down to the surface. We need his assistance."

"Will do, sir."

Maverick switched the comm. channel back off.

They waited until they saw the Dreadnought land and went out to greet the returning troops and Offensive. Maverick guided Offensive and the two most experienced engineers over to the two captured vehicles. Offensive scanned the Banshee first.

"_I see significant power readings coming from this. This craft has about four times the power it needs to run all of its functions including this shield for several years. The power supply seems to be coming from this little package at the bottom."_ He scanned the little box. _"The power is being transferred to this banshee from another site. I am attempting to trace the origin of the energy transmissions. Kimberly, bring Edinex over here to help me."_

Kimberly plugged Edinex's chip into the base of Offensive's casing.

"_The power source is twenty to thirty miles northeast of our current position. If I am not mistaken, that is where the original landing point for the troops that attacked us was. We should send a convoy out there to salvage whatever we can. Maverick, please order a reconnaissance flyover to make sure that there are no more Covenant at the landing point."_

Maverick punched in a code on his wrist screen and mumbled something into his headset.

They all watched as a modified Longsword launched from a cruiser floating in the planet's orbit. A bright flash and a rumbling sound preceded the Longsword's flyover. A few minutes later a voice crackled into life in the Spartans' headsets.

"There are two or three Jiralhanae down there, along with a small garrison of Unggoy and Kig-Yar. In addition, there are two or three Huragok down there."

"Thank you, admiral. We'll take it from here," Maverick told him.

Maverick limped over to the courtyard where twenty or thirty marines were sitting around, idly chatting about nothing.

"On your feet. We are going on a retrieve and destroy mission. We know the exact location of our item of interest. However there is a small force of Covenant around it. I want two Scorpions up front. I also need a transport truck ready to move the item. We don't know how big it is. I need three gauss hogs to escort the transport truck and a falcon or two to cover us from above."

The marines scrambled to do as they were told. After a few minutes had passed, the retrieval team was ready to launch. Jake, Kimberly, Landen, and Thorn all jumped on the transport truck. Maverick stayed behind. Kat, Jacob, Sara, and Kreft kept him company. Offensive floated up beside Kimberly and stayed there.

The team drove out of the complex in the direction Offensive had indicated. It did not take them long to get to the target location.

As soon as they topped the rise shielding the drop site, the Scorpions fired. The only Wraith in the clearing was instantly vaporized. The two Jiralhanae Chieftains scattered. The Unggoy screamed and ran. A handful of Kig-Yar troopers stood up to them but were quickly mowed down by the Gauss hogs.

"Aw, come on. I just cleaned this thing," one marine groaned.

When all the hostile forces had been eliminated, the transport truck pulled into the clearing. Offensive scanned the area, and then flew over to a small tower like structure that had been planted in the ground.

"_This is the location of the power beacon. Please do be careful while loading this onto the truck. I detect forerunner influences in this piece of technology."_

The four Spartans lifted the tower out of the ground and carried it over to the truck. It was only about twelve feet tall, and was very light. Once the pillar had been strapped down, the truck took off. This time they traveled very slowly. It was almost dark by the time the convoy arrived back at the base. Only parts of the base had been repaired. The command building's roof had been repaired and engineers were going back and forth inside of it, fixing whatever they could.

The transport truck parked outside the research facility entrance. It had been built into the ground and so it was not damaged. The pillar was loaded into the cargo elevator and sent down. Offensive accompanied it.

"Well," Maverick said, rubbing his hands together, "We've had a busy day. Why don't we go to bed and find out what Offensive knows about this thing tomorrow."

The rest of the team agreed. They walked to their barracks, which was another of the buildings not severely damaged. Each Spartan removed their armor and took showers, then went to sleep.

Maverick was the only one not asleep. He put on his helmet and brought up a secure comm. link. He called the head.

"They did well today sir. I was impressed."

"That is good to hear. Please keep me informed of anything that happens."

Maverick filled the Head in on the events of the day.

"You have been busy. I'm glad to see you're up and fighting. Go to bed. You can send me another message in the morning. Chang is creating new Spartans as we speak. Good night."

The screen went dark. Maverick removed his helmet and sighed. He rolled over on his good side and went to sleep.

**Ooh. Maverick knows more than he's telling. Thanks for reading. Review!**


	11. Forerunner

**Hey again everyone. Here's another chapter. Please Read, Review, and Enjoy.**

All nine members of the team woke up simultaneously as the alarm overhead blared out.

"Ugh. That went off way too early for me. What time is it?" Thorn asked.

"0600 hours. Let's go see what Offensive has been able to dig up. FERA, would you please send him a message that we're coming to visit him?" Maverick said.

"Sure thing." Her avatar winked out as she withdrew into her chip.

The team put on their armor and assembled their weaponry. As soon as they were ready, Maverick led them outside to a waiting transport truck. Once they were all in, the transport truck drove them to the cargo elevator of the lab. They all jumped out and entered, preparing for the long descent. Once in the elevator, they had about thirty minutes to kill.

Kat stood close to Jake. They had activated a private communications line and were talking through it. Landen was reviewing the previous day's battle on his tactical pad. He leaned over to Kreft and pointed out an anomaly in the enemy's maneuvering.

"Look. Ten minutes before the attack, the line was advancing steadily towards our position. Nine minutes, nothing had changed. At eight minutes they halted for a few seconds and then continued. Skip ahead and we see that several banshees peeled off at three minutes to conflict. We never see those banshees again. Now, I'm going to zoom in on the banshees that peeled off before the conflict. Nothing but a few smudges to show something on them. However, the other banshees do not have these smudges." He walked over to a data port and plugged his tactical pad in. "This will clear the image up. Look at it. What do you see?"

Kreft sucked in his breath. "Those were space banshees. They could be leaving to relay a message for help."

"Not likely. There were no larger ships out there, and they can't have traveled far. They don't have slipspace drives. However, they could hide in the asteroid field and attack when we're not expecting it."

Kreft accessed FLEETCOM and said to the admiral, "Sir, we have a situation. We are sending you a video from yesterday's conflict. There are several banshees that leave formation at three minutes to conflict. We have not seen them since. Search the system for possible signs of them. Destroy or capture them, but do not let them escape."

"Thank you, Kreft. I'll put some Sabres on it." The FLEETCOM connection winked out.

A few minutes later, the elevator shuttered to a halt. The door opened to reveal a solid wall. The level marker showed that they were still a hundred feet above the lab. Then the lights winked out. The emergency power allowed one data port to come on, but that was it. Kimberly rushed over to it.

"The power has been cut. External physical tampering, not hacked. Something is in the elevator housing unit."

Kreft scanned the space above them. "Buggers!" he shouted.

They all turned to the open door. Several of the insect like figures were huddled in the doorway, watching them. As soon as they were spotted, they opened fire. Kimberly huddled over the data port, determined to keep it from getting damaged. Kreft pulled out a sword and started slashing the Yan'me. When he killed one, he would toss the plasma pistols to the Spartans. They made short work of the swarm. When they were done, about fifty bodies lay on the floor. Still, the elevator hung there, immobilized. Kimberly transferred as much power as she could to it without shutting down the data port. The doors slowly closed and the elevator started to descend again. It was very slow going. They went down inch by inch. It took another thirty minutes for the elevator to get to the bottom.

When they arrived, the doors opened and Offensive floated in. If an A.I. in a floating case could look concerned, he did. _"Where have you been? You were supposed to be here half an hour ago."_ Then he looked down. _"Oh. I see you had company on the way down. Did they cut the power?"_

"Yeah, they cut the power," Thorn answered.

"_Aw, well. Please do follow me."_ Offensive floated down the hallway towards the top secret portion of the research facility. He entered a code and floated further into the area. In the very center of the room was a pedestal. The pedestal was mirrored on the ceiling by another pedestal. Energy pulses ran between the pedestals. The pillar was floating in it.

"_I have discovered extensive forerunner influences in this piece of equipment. There is even a forerunner artifact in the core."_ He started to open the pillar and then pulled the core of the pillar out. He handed it to Maverick. _"What do you see?"_ he asked.

"There's a ring of some sort at the very center. You can feel the energy radiation coming off of it."

Offensive took the core back. _"That ring is thoroughly Forerunner in origin. It was used to power some of their equipment, including some of their more advanced A.I.'s. I have one just like it in me. My only conclusion is that they found an A.I. or ship and extracted this from it. This ring could power all of your suits tenfold for about two thousand years. It also contains a small portion of whatever it came from."_ He pulled a small chunk of metal out of the center of the ring. The metal had scorch marks on it. _"I have closely examined each of your weapons. This damage to the metal was done by a Spartan laser about fifty years ago. In other words, when Master Chief destroyed 343 Guilty Spark, this was one of the things not completely destroyed. These power sources are virtually non-destroyable. It would take two or three Halos self-destructing around this to destroy it. The ring projects a small shield around whatever it is connected to. That is probably why it took as many shots as it did for Chief to kill 343. The Covenant must have recovered from the debris field after the ring was destroyed. The power signature alone would show up on any radar. Any ship passing through would have been able to see it."_

"So what does that mean for us?" Kreft asked.

"_This ring can be copied given the right amount of supplies, time, and skill. It is most likely that the Covenant have copied it and are using it in other endeavors. This could power one of their ships for a while, or add tremendous power to their weapons. We are lucky we have an original. Mistakes are amplified each time something is copied. It also tells us where they got the technology."_

"Can we copy them and install them into out armor?" Jake asked, jumping at the idea.

"_Most likely, yes. However, the supplies are not readily available. Though I suspect mining this planet for a day or two might reveal enough supplies to make several rings, more than enough for your armor. I believe there to be a Forerunner installation buried deep below the surface of this planet. It is also possible that it is the core of this planet. It was not uncommon for the Forerunners to turn installations into bare planets devoid of life to try and protect them from the flood. Meteorites would crash into the planet and release gasses, creating an atmosphere. Then micro organisms that inhabited the meteorites would evolve over the millennia, creating the planet that we are currently on. If this is the case, then we may be on a very important planet."_

"Is there any way for us to get to the installation?" Sara asked.

"_Yes. Actually, the entrance to the installation is not far from our current position. We could possibly go there in a few hours. First I need to extract this ring and give the schematics for it to your engineers. They need to get to work if they are going to build more of these."_ He floated out of the room, carrying the core.

"Well then, we need to get ready. If we're going on an exploration of an old Forerunner installation, we need to be prepared for flood, sentinels, or any other manner of nasty things," Maverick instructed. "Make sure your weapons are ready. Do you all still have your plasma pistols? We're going to need them if there are sentinels. They work quite well against them."

The group held up their plasma pistols in an affirmative. About that time, Offensive floated back into the room.

"_The engineers are working already. I have ordered a mining drill be brought in so that we can get to the installation. It should be here in a few seconds."_ Right as he said this, the drill entered the room and rolled over to one wall. Offensive removed the wall panel and set it aside. _"Please commence drilling. Our objective is 6 kilometers north of here about two kilometers down."_ The engineer running the drill set the angle and the drill started to dig. It did not take long for the drill to strike metal. The bit ground itself up on the wall then stopped. The group walked cautiously down the tunnel. _"I do believe we have found the door,"_ Offensive chuckled. The drill laid smoking beside the door, evidence of sentinel beams widely apparent.

Offensive floated over to the door and entered an access code. _"We should be prepared for anything. I do not know what might be behind this door."_

The group stood to either side of the door, guns ready. The door slid open. Thorn peeked around the doorframe, and then stepped fully into it. "Guys, you're going to want to see this." The rest of the team looked in. The hallway was filled with rows upon rows of very advanced cryo-units. They were very obviously Forerunner.

"Maybe they weren't all killed. Maybe some survived," Sara breathed.

The team checked each of the units for signs of life. Only one of them contained a body. Offensive floated over to it and entered a code into the access port. Steam shot out of the sides of the unit and the glass fogged up. The lid popped up and the fog dissipated. However, the body remained motionless.

"_We may be too late. He has been in here for several thousand years. There is no telling whether or not he could survive such a period of time in a cryo unit."_

Then the body stirred. A groan came from the mouth of the figure. He blinked his eyes. They were startlingly blue, as if the day and night sky and come together as one and filled his eyes. He was tall and slender, but not quite human. His body was covered in armor. Everyone could tell from the light in his eyes that he held great wisdom. He groaned again, then started to lift himself out of the cryo bay. He nodded towards Offensive, then realized that there were others in the room.

"Who are you?" he croaked. His voice was scratchy from not talking for so long. However, one could tell that his voice had once been beautiful, and would be once more. The Spartans stepped back in shock.

"You speak our language?" Jake asked.

"What species are you?" the Forerunner asked.

"We are humans. Homo Sapiens," Maverick answered.

"How did you get here?"

"We're stationed on a military installation on the surface above us."

"What year is this?"

"2602."

"Oh, this is not good. I was supposed to be revived from cryo a thousand years ago. What has happened since then?"

The Spartans looked at each other.

"We'll take you to our research lab. You can read up on what has happened," Sara said.

"We'll need to keep your existence a secret. Most humans think the Forerunners are extinct. Your existence could cause a galaxy wide panic," Maverick explained. "By the way, what is your name?"

"Romius."

"Well Romius, welcome to the 27th century."

**A lot of Forerunner stuff here. If one survived, are there others? Find out in the next chapter.**


	12. Flood

**Hello again. Sorry for the long update. School and thanksgiving take up WAY too much time. Not to mention I have gotten back into drawing anime. Don't judge me. Please R&R.**

"So," Maverick asked, "Are there more of you still alive?"

"No. Probably not," Romius answered. If there were, they would be in a cryogenic unit. Um, A.I., what is your name?"

"_I am Offensive Bias, Forerunner A.I. Primary Function is to combat Mendicant Bias and the Gravemind."_

"Thank you. Please check the cryogenic units on all Forerunner installations and ships."

Offensive floated over to an access panel. _"I'm sorry sir. There are no others. You are the only Forerunner in existence."_

"OK then," he said, rubbing his hands together.

A knocking sound came from the door at the end of the chamber.

"That's not good. There isn't supposed to be anything in that chamber. Offensive, please show the monitoring device for that chamber.

Offensive brought the hologram up. What they saw made them groan. Maverick sat down and held his head in his hands.

"What is it?" Jacob asked.

"It's the Flood," Maverick answered him. "I thought we had wiped the last of them out. I'll notify command that we need to evacuate the planet immediately." He switched to a FLEETCOM link. "Attention all UNSC personnel. Please report to the nearest drop ship. We must evacuate the planet immediately. This is not a drill. Emergency code F2776-FLOOD. Parasitic Flood organisms discovered. Please report to the nearest drop ship and evacuate the planet." He turned to his team. "Let's blow this joint."

A marine brought several tons of explosives into the room. Romius helped the Spartans to put them in all the correct places.

"You do know," he told them, "That these explosives will not be enough to destroy them."

"Yes," said Sara. "But it will seal the entrance hopefully. Offensive, can you self destruct this installation from your Dreadnought?"

"_Certainly."_

"Good. Set these things down and let's get out of here."

The team walked back into the lab. They recovered the tunnel and then started to grab anything that might be important. A cargo truck had been backed into the lab and they started putting all the equipment onto it.

"Well, apparently the elevator is fixed," Kimberly commented.

Offensive guided Thorn and Jacob as they lifted the pillar and placed it in a strong box. It did not take long for everything to be loaded onto the truck. Everyone jumped in as the truck started up. It joined several other trucks on the trip to the elevator. Two trucks at a time were being lifted to the surface. The _Arc of Light_ had entered the atmosphere and landed at a makeshift dry dock while the troops loaded all mobile supplies into the hangar and cargo bays. The captured Wraith and Banshee were loaded into a high security bay locked up. Maverick shook his head.

"It's a pity that the Flood is down there. This was becoming a fairly nice installation."

When all the supplies were on board and most of the troops, Maverick looked at his tactical pad.

"Detonation in 10 minutes."

The rest of the troops hurried to board the _Arc of Light_. The Spartan team rushed to the Dreadnought. They were all in and launched when they noticed the medical evacuation. The infirmary was still loading injured troops and other personnel onto a medical transport. They were only about half way done. Maverick halted the detonation countdown with only two or three seconds left. Then they heard an explosion from deep within the ground. Maverick look at his TAC-pad again. All the explosives were still intact.

"Offensive, give me visual on the Cryo-bay," he instructed.

The hologram came up. Jake groaned. Maverick swore.

"My God, they've escaped," he said.

He opened a comm. line with the medical transport.

"Get your asses out of their NOW! The Flood have broken out of their imprisonment in the Forerunner installation and are on their way out."

They watched as the elevator shaft shuddered and collapsed as the hoards of teeming parasites flooded out. The medical transport lifted off with its doors open, still loading patients onboard. The Flood overwhelmed the troopers and patients still on the ground. The transport closed its doors as the Flood ripped a medical officer off of his post. The small craft barely managed to escape destruction by the Flood Pure forms. It floated up beside the Arc of Light and landed in its main hangar bay. Both the Dreadnought and the Arc of Light exited the atmosphere. Maverick again opened a comm. link.

"Captain, we do not have the communication abilities to call for back up. Please call for a Sangheili ship to come and glass the surface of this planet."

"Will do, son. Do you mind telling me what in hell happened down there?"

"Yes sir. We discovered a Forerunner installation near one of the lab stations. We entered and heard a knocking sound. Offensive accessed the monitor for the next room. It was filled with flood. We packed the room we were in with explosives and left. That was when we initiated the evacuation. The flood broke out before we could set off the explosives. They came up the elevator shaft and took part of the medical staff and some of our injured. Speaking of which, have you talked with General Fortree?"

"No son, I haven't. I thought he must be on your Dreadnought. He wasn't on the med transport. I looked there because I was told that he had been injured in the bombardment."

Both of them bowed their heads.

"The only explanation is that he is still down there. Send a probe down to search for survivors. We have a sample of his DNA. Put it in the probe to search specifically for his DNA signature. We'll find him either way."

The connection blinked out.

"Fortree didn't make it out. We have no idea whether or not he is still alive."

All of them bowed their heads.

"On the other hand, he could still be alive. The captain sent a probe ship down to the surface to look for him. If he is dead or alive, the probe will bring him back. If he is infected, the probe will kill the infection and again bring his body back. We will find him one way or another."

A few hours later, the probe returned with the body of General Robert Fortree. He had numerous wounds all over his body. Most of them were from the collapse of the command building, but he had several new ones from fighting the flood.

Once the Spartans were on board the _Arc of Light, _the Admiral brought up the video the probe had taken when it had retrieved Fortree's body. Everyone in attendance gasped when they saw the scene of his death. Flood bodies littered the ground. Most of them had been killed by hand to hand combat. The few with gunshot wounds had powder burns from the close range of the combat. Fortree was clutching his Magnum to him, having fought to the very end. Now, his body lay composed in an ornamental casket of polished chrome. The casket was put into an enlarged cryo unit to preserve his body.

After the funeral, Maverick and Kreft quietly removed Fortree's casket from the cryo bay and transported it to a top secret lab facility in the core of the ship. Once there, they opened the casket and reverently placed the General's body on a scanner. They scanned the neural connections of his brain, and then placed him back in the casket. Sara uploaded the scan to module holding an A.I. chip. The three watched as a hologram appeared on the display of the module. It was the image of a young man in dress uniform. He looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

"Greetings," he said. "I am Manuel."

The three greeted him.

"Would you please be so kind as to plug me into the main database? I need to download as much information as possible so that I can be of assistance. I already have knowledge of the last mission, but other than that, I am at a loss."

"OK," Maverick said. He picked up the chip and plugged it into the main data terminal. Manuel downloaded all the top security clearance codes and information on most of the UNSC fleet.

Maverick and Kreft turned away. They had to return the body to the cryo bay before anyone noticed that it was missing.

Once Manuel had finished gathering information, Sara inserted his chip in the back of her helmet. They returned to their main cabin to find Romius sitting in an arm chair drinking a soda.

"Well, you've certainly adjusted to life here," Kreft commented, laughing.

"Yes, it is quite nice here. I trust that you recovered your General's body."

"We did. He killed several Flood with hand to hand combat. Several others were killed with point blank shots with a hand gun."

"He was a resilient cuss, wasn't he?"

"He was. Never had I known a non-Spartan to be able to withstand the amount of injury he did without being killed. Most of his wounds were from the collapse of the command center, before we had even discovered the flood presence. He would have lasted longer if he hadn't been injured in the first place," Maverick said.

"Hey, Maverick?" Thorn asked. "Did you ever detonate those explosives?"

"No, to tell the truth I didn't. I suppose I ought to." He looked at his TAC-pad and entered a code.

Back on the surface of the planet, the ground heaved upward, destroying several buildings, and then proceeded to collapse again. The crater left by the explosion quickly filled with debris from the surround area. The crater rose into a dome again. The dome started to crack, then fell apart as the Gravemind ripped its prison apart.

"_**At last, I am FREE! You slime of the ground will be powerless to stop me."**_ The sound reverberated through the atmosphere. The _Arc of Light_ was just exiting the atmosphere at the time. Everybody onboard heard the thunderous roar.__

"Um, not good."

"I would say not. The presence of a Gravemind is a serious matter indeed. We must deal with it accordingly," Romius said. "The Gravemind is what caused the fall of the Forerunners. However, a direct and concentrated attack on the surface of the planet could kill off most of the infection. Then a bombardment of explosives could open up the ground. The attack would continue until the flood were destroyed."

"We've called in a ship to glass the surface. It will kill the infection easily. Then we will bury the exit of the facility. We'll starve the flood. This entire system will become a quarantined area. No one will be allowed in or out," Jake told him.

"That works too."

Something rocked the ship, throwing everyone to the floor. The Captain's voice came over the intercom. "All personnel to their battle stations. The Flood are attempting to shoot us down."

The team ran to the bridge. The Captain motioned for them to come over to him. "The Flood have commandeered several Covie ships. They are firing at us in volleys. We need those craft shot down. The New Dawn will be here in two or three hours to glass the planet. We have to hold the Flood down until then. There are mass driver cannons mounted on the top and bottom of this ship. Man them and shoot down those ships."

The team ran to each of their positions. Not long after, Flood occupied craft started exploding like a bag of Jiffy-Pop. It did not take long for each of the craft to be shot down. Maverick hugged Sara, took off his helmet and kissed her. "Nice shooting! Now maybe we can relax and have some alone time."

"I'm afraid that that won't be possible," the Admiral said. "The New Covenant is making its presence very well known. We are heading to Reach, where UNSC forces have been rebuilding. We need all personnel battle ready when we enter the system."

"Yes sir. We understand sir." Maverick looked at Sara with longing.

"Don't worry son. You'll get alone time eventually."

Maverick laughed bitterly. "We're Spartans. We don't get 'alone time.'"

**Sorry for the wait. Had virus. Please R&R. Thanks for reading.**


	13. Reach

**Hello again. Another chapter. Please R&R. By the way, I got the Halo encyclopedia for Christmas, so there will be a lot more stuff in here hopefully.**

As the _Arc of Light _was preparing to leave the system, the Sangheili cruiser _Transient Ascension_ exited slipspace and began orbiting Solace-311. Once it was given the coordinates of the flood infestation, it glassed the surface of the planet for fifty miles around the infection zone. The Admiral instructed the _Transient Ascension_ to remain in orbit and glass the area every two days to make sure there was no more infection. The crisis had been contained.

"How urgent is it for us to get to Reach?" Jake asked.

"You're needed there right now, but as you can see that's not possible," Captain Chris answered.

"We could get you there in a few minutes," Romius told them. "We have a Dreadnought. It is not limited by your inferior slipspace technologies."

The Spartans looked at each other.

"That works. We will go ahead and begin loading the supplies we need. We can probably also take a good many troops and some vehicles. The New Covenant won't know what hit them," Thorn said.

And so loading began. Everything that could be transported to the Dreadnought was transported with the utmost efficiency. When transport was completed, a legion of Scorpions and Warthogs had been loaded on board with enough marines to crew each of them twice. The Dreadnought floated away from the _Arc of Light_ and powered up. A glow began to surround the Dreadnought, and then the whole ship disappeared. Three hours later, it reappeared in the airspace over Reach. It quickly began to descend to ground level where all of the vehicles and troops disembarked. They were immediately surrounded by New Covenant troops. Nothing but Unggoy forces stretched out before their eyes. The only exception was a lone Jiralhanae minor. Sara turned towards him.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"For you to surrender," he said gruffly.

Beside her, Kreft raised his Beam rifle and fired a round into the minor's face. Thus the slaughter commenced. Marines strafed the Unggoy with M41 Anti Aircraft cannons. Kreft rushed in with energy swords slashing. A few minutes later, a Grunt Specialist climbed up on top of an overturned ghost.

"Stop stop stop!" He screeched. "We surrender."

Suddenly the Unggoy forces turned around and fled, screaming as they went.

"They don't usually give up that easily. That isn't a good sign. Everyone, load back into the Dreadnought. We're going to find a safer LZ," Maverick commanded.

Maverick's COMM unit crackled to life. "This is Lord Hood. We are in need of assistance. Overwhelming forces are in route to our position. Is anyone there to assist?"

"This is strike force Delta-Three. We are en-route to your position," Maverick said.

The Dreadnought lifted off and quickly flew over to the rendezvous point. The cargo was again unloaded, and the Dreadnought rose into the air to hide in the clouds. A few minutes later, the first New Covenant vehicle came into sight. It was a Shadow. It rushed into the field in front of the humans and stopped. Eight Jiralhanae heroes jumped out and rushed forward while the Shadow zoomed back out of sight. Then a line of Spectres appeared. Each had a Jiralhanae at driving and another gunning, with Unggoy troopers with fuel rod cannons sitting on either side. The line of Scorpions opened fire. Spectres vaporized and fuel rods exploded, sending flaming wreckage into the vehicles that had not been shot. It did not take long for the line to become a field of debris. The Jiralhanae Heroes fell one after the other. Sniper fire rained down on them, killing them all. Then a Wraith shell landed on a Scorpion. The crew was killed instantly and the vehicle was ripped apart. The humans turned to see a line of Wraiths and Revenants approaching from the other side of the hill. Around thirty Hornets rose into the air and returned fire. Several Falcons rose up after them with two Vultures coming after that. Wraiths splintered apart and anti tank missiles fired out. The Dreadnought strafed the oncoming enemy forces. Revenants rushed in and fired, tearing apart several Warthogs. Scorpions returned fire, turning the offensive Revenants into scrap metal. Another line of Warthogs, these carrying M12G1 Gauss cannons fired at the few remaining Revenants.

"May-day, may-day. This is Vulture-369. We've been hit and are going down."

Everyone looked up in time to one of the Vultures spiraling out of control. It fired off several Argent V missiles. Each of them struck on or near an enemy vehicle. Every one of them was deadly. The Vulture gave a final boost, and then sank behind the hill. Thorn saw three pilots stagger over the hill. Behind them, a geyser of flame rose into the air.

"Marine, help those pilots get back down here," he instructed. The M831 Troop Hog drove off towards the injured pilots.

The remaining Vulture continued to rain hell on the enemy forces. A hornet flew behind enemy lines, then raced back. "Enemy air reinforcements inbound! Two or three squadrons of banshees as well as several Vampires."

Maverick roared into his headset. "Well for Pete's sake don't just sit there. Shoot down those Vampires before they get in range to use their heavy needlers or EMP's."

The only remaining Vulture turned its attention from the now scattered ground troops to the oncoming aircraft. Its GUA-23 autocannons opened fire. Explosions peppered the air around the oncoming troops. The Vulture loosed three Argent V missiles. The missiles all found their targets, and the shrapnel destroyed all of the banshees, but one Vampire escaped destruction and boosted towards the cloud of Hornets. As soon as its EMP weapons came within range of the Hornets, they started dropping. One Hornet got a lucky shot in and sent the Vampire to the ground, where it super combined on itself. A few of the EMP'd Hornets managed to regain control, but the rest smashed into the ground.

By this time, all of the Revenants and most of the Wraiths had been eliminated. The Dreadnought deployed a Gremlin, which disabled the remaining Wraiths. Marines in an M12A1 Hog destroyed the disabled Wraiths. A Sinoviet HM 1220 LTUV-M drove up and Lord Hood jumped out. "Thanks for the assist," he said. Then he saw the Spartans. "Wait, you were supposed to be stationed at Solace-311. How did you get here so fast?"

"We have our ways," Maverick said. He glanced behind him to see that the Dreadnought had cloaked itself.

"Well, anyways, thanks for the assistance."

The vehicles turned and formed a convoy. They drove for several hours towards the military base. Sara sat in the back of an M831 with Maverick's arm wrapped around her shoulders. They both took off their helmets and looked at each other, staring deep into each other's eyes. The marines sitting across from them smiled. It was nice to see the more human side of the incredible war machines that were Spartans.

"Thanks for coming to help us," one of the marines said.

"You're welcome," Maverick answered. "What's your name, soldier?"

"Private Horatio Gonzalez. I just joined the Marines. I wasn't expecting combat so soon. Especially not with more Covie scum."

"We weren't expecting any more trouble from them."

The marine sitting next to Pvt. Gonzalez was a much higher rank. Before Maverick could ask, he said, "I'm Strike Commander Hunter Drake. I was one of the lucky few who escaped the destruction of Reach. I know what these things are capable of." He shuddered. "Ugh, that was not a pretty time. And now their back. We defeated them, started rebuilding, and they came back. Crazy." He shook his head. 

"I know what you mean. Sara and I didn't witness the horrors of the Fall of Reach. We were in cryo with severe malformations from augmentation. It was only about fifteen years ago that we were revived and our injuries healed. Now we're fully functioning Spartans again. It's so weird to see all the changes."

"You're lucky. I've had to go through extensive therapy to get over the shock of seeing so many people so mercilessly killed."

"I guess we are. I heard about John's disappearance some fifty years ago. Did they ever find him?" Sara asked.

"If they did, they haven't told us. He's still listed as MIA."

"If John is anything like he was back during training, he has either already been found and is in seclusion somewhere, or he is finding some way to get back home," Maverick commented.

"You know, I actually saw him in combat. My god, what a force. We were pinned down behind a destroyed Scorpion, trying to fend off the oncoming waves. Chief drove up in a 'Hog and jumped out. All he had was assault rifle, but how he could use it. When it was out of ammo, he used it like a club and smashed the skulls of the Brutes that were pinning us down. If he hadn't come to help us, those Brutes would have killed us all."

"That sounds like John. He never was one to just let people get killed. He would put his own safety on the line to get the rest of his team to where they needed to be."

Sara lay against Maverick's shoulder. "He was amazing even before training started. I heard when we were in the initial training that he was brutal fighter while at school. They had this whole King of the Hill thing, and he managed forty something victories. The only injury he suffered was a chipped tooth. His classmates had numerous broken arms, collarbones, and other appendages. He was only six. A six year old that good at fighting was destined to be a good soldier."

"He's the best," Maverick said.

Gonzalez and Drake looked impressed. "Geez," Gonzalez said. "That's way more than I could have done. I would have been one of the kids laying on the ground crying."

About that time, the convoy entered the military compound. Maverick and Sara replaced their helmets. When the convoy stopped, they nodded to the other two passengers and jumped off. They met up with the rest of their team and walked into the command room. Lord Hood was waiting for them.

"Again, I thank you for the help. We would have been overwhelmed without you."

"You're welcome. We were glad to help."

"Now, about how you got here so quickly. There have been rumors circulating that you stole a New Covenant occupied Forerunner Dreadnought."

"The rumors may or may not be true. We are not at liberty to tell you."

"OK then."

"It's nothing personal. I have strict instructions from the Head not to disclose any information about our deployment to anyone outside of our division."

"Oh. Well anyways, we'll debrief you tomorrow. Meanwhile, we have accommodations ready for you. Turn right when you leave this building and it's the first building to your left."

"Thank you," Maverick said, nodding to him. The eight Spartans and one Sangheili walked out of the room and into a busy hallway. Messengers were dashing back and forth delivering sensitive information between high ranking officers. However, wherever the Spartans walked, there was always a parting of the flood, as if the marines did not want to get in their way. They stepped into the small barracks and flopped down on the beds.

"Might as well not take off our armor. For all we know, we'll be attacked while we're asleep," Landen said.

They all removed their helmets and looked at each other. Even after a few days, their armor was already scuffed and scraped from the extensive combat they had been in.

"Night everybody," Jake said. Kat lay down on the bed next to him. Sara got on the same bunk as Maverick and snuggled up into the crook of his arm. Kreft clicked off the lights.

**Sorry for the long, loooooooooooong update. Christmas vacation then writer's block. Also, the vehicles all come from the Halo Encyclopedia that I received for Christmas. The story about Chief is also true. Got it from Halsey's journal. Happy January.**


End file.
